The Jackie Jane Adventures
by kmcoffee
Summary: Σομέτη2νθ 2ς ωομ2νθ; τη9πέ 2ς σομέτη2νθ ηε μ8στ γέαπν. Ηε [He] 2ς [is] βποκ9ν [broken]. The TARDIS suddenly drops the Doctor in Pete's world & disappears, leaving him on his own. Adventures ensue with friends, old & new, a temperamental TARDIS, & an impossible Time Lord. Takes place between Angels Take Manhattan/Snowmen. Above language is my invented Gallifreyan, used in story.
1. Chapter 1

River adjusted his red satin bow tie and gently brushed the grime from his face.

"Now wasn't that fun?" She whispered breathlessly.

"Stop….stop it….really, I'm capable of my own grooming," he murmured, slightly disgruntled with an air of humor in his voice. He reached for her hands, pulling them away from his face, and studied the dark charred marks left from her disintegrator gun. He looked into her eyes and gave her a judgmental look; she stared back defiantly.

"Now come, love, you know if I hadn't shot at them they'd have never left us go. I did us a favor."

He rolled his eyes, obviously irritated. "You know how I feel about weapons! You told me you hadn't brought anything."

She flashed him a coy smile and whispered "I lied. You're lucky I didn't bring any of the good toys." She turned quickly and walked towards the door of the TARDIS, pulling out her blue journal and scanning the pages as she walked. "Now love, be good until I see you next. Try not to get yourself killed, and do try and find yourself a little friend…" she paused mid-step as she found the page she was looking for. She skimmed the writing, then slowly closed the book. She turned around and put on a slightly forced smile and walked back to him, wrapping her arms around him and placing her head on his chest.

"What? Why did you get all…sad-ish? What did I do?" he asked as he pulled her in for a hug.

She tried to mask a tear as she pulled back, looked into his eyes and whispered, "Spoilers." She widened her smile, then pulled back and walked back towards the door of the TARDIS, turning the dials of her vortex manipulator as she did so. "Oy," she called in a slightly broken voice, "I love you."

He slid his hands into his pockets and gave her a little quizzical smile, "I love you too." She smiled and finished pushing her buttons. "Just, just don't kill anything," he called as she vanished.

He sighed, once again alone in the TARDIS. He walked around the controls, gently stroking bits and pieces of her. "Hello, Sexy." He let out a half laugh and whispered, "what am I going to do with her?"

Suddenly, the TARDIS jerked, nearly sending him flying into the surrounding safety rails. "Oy, no need to get jealous!" He pulled himself over to the control panel and looked around at the madly whizzing dials and flashing lights. "What are you doing? Where are you taking us?" He pulled the screen down and stared at it intently, and his face went white as he realized the destination. "Oh no, no no NO! We can NOT go there! Holes in time and space, did you miss that bit when we left?" He began running around flipping switches trying desperately to reverse course; the TARDIS jerked again, and sent him flying into the door, his suspender catching on the lock. "You can't do this, this is a bad idea, very bad, BAD idea!" he shouted as he tried to come unattached from the door. He unsnapped the caught suspender, and tried to run back to the panels; the TARDIS jerked one more time, sending him flying backwards and through the open door.

He tumbled out, and landed on his back, staring up at the blue sky. He could hear the ocean to his right, and feel the sand scratching the back of his neck and getting tangled in his hair. He sat up, and stared at the TARDIS sitting before him. "You've been a very bad, bad girl." He jumped up and made for the door, which slammed shut in his face. He pulled out his key and tried to unlock it, but the key wouldn't budge. He watched helplessly as the TARDIS slowly began to dematerialize. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS!" he struggled and pulled on the door, until he realized there was nothing he could do but watch the blue box as she disappeared. He stared blankly ahead for a moment, trying to comprehend the situation. He slowly turned in a circle, taking in the beach, the ocean and the cliffs, the scattered wispy clouds in the sky, the taste of salt on the air. The feeling of Earth but the unfamiliar atmosphere of the place, the coldness and pain of the last time he stood here. The feeling of abandonment shared between two souls.

BadWolfBay.


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor stood on the beach gazing blankly ahead, trying to process the events. How could the TARDIS just dump him on the beach and leave him? Where did she go? "And why? What's happened?" he whispered.

"Hey, are you alright, mister?" a young British voice called out from behind him. He snapped around and saw off in the distance a young girl, couldn't be older than twenty, making her way towards him through the sand. Her dark brown hair curled softly down her back in loose ringlets. A tiny thing, she wore stylish boots up to her mid-calves, dark jeans, and a green sweater.

"Ah…yes, I'm fine, thank you. Where exactly am I?"

"You, sir," she called as she got closer, "are on an empty forgotten beach called 'Darlig Ulv Stranden, in the beautiful country of Norway." She put her hands on her hips and smiled wide with perfect teeth as she finally stopped several feet away. "Now, sir, why are you here?"

"Well you see, that's really an excellent question, I was sort of…left here…likely by mistake, I really shouldn't be here actually."

The girl grinned quizzically, "You were abandoned on an obscure beach in Norway by mistake, and you think it's a bad idea that you're here, because…what, you're scared you'll upset the seagulls?"

"Well…no. It's just…the…uh…" he paused, not quite sure what to say. He didn't quite want to reveal anything about himself to this girl, yet any explanation he could come up with he was sure she would be clever enough to see through. For all he knew, she saw the TARDIS leave him here and was simply playing her own hand close. He sighed. "Do you know where I could get some chips?"

"Chips? Are you mad?" he gave a pathetic tilted-head "kind of...please don't ask questions" puppy dog look. She chuckled, "Probably not 'round here, at least not any good ones. I can however get you in the hands of my landlady, who can whip up some absolutely delicious Norwegian cuisine that I could never dream of pronouncing properly. Come on." She motioned for him to follow as she turned and walked back up the beach. He watched her walking, wondering if he should abandon her or follow.

"No Tardis," he mumbled to himself as he quickly checked his coat pockets "at least I've got the screwdriver. Well it looks like I've not got much of a choice here do I."

"Are you coming, then?" the girl called behind her. He sighed and began reluctantly following. "So, sir, what can I call you?"

"Uh…Smith. John Smith." She laughed quietly under her breath. "And what's so funny about that?"

"Oh, nothing really, I suppose it's just rather a common name," she replied cynically.

"Why... do you know another John Smith?" he asked hesitantly. She turned back and half smiled, as if bitterly amused. "Yeah, I do; several actually."

As they rounded the corner of the cliffs, the sand began to ebb off into waves of rolling green grass, and the flat plane of beach began to run into hills that reached up towards the graying sky. Among the grass was a well-walked dirt path that stretched up over the hills, which they followed. "What may I call you?" he asked as they climbed the hill.

"Jane Doe," she called behind her. She chuckled when he didn't seem to receive the joke, "I'm usually called JJ. Or Jax, whichever suits you. I'll really respond to mostly anything, though."

"Well, then JJ it's a pleasure to meet you," he paused for a moment, "JJ of Norway, it's got a nice ring to it. Not really spent much time with anyone from Norway before."

"Well, you're not starting now; I'm not from Norway, I was born and raised in Cardiff. I'm here on holiday, working on an assignment for my class."

"Ah, university girl, then?" He eyed her up, trying to gauge how old she could be.

"Not exactly," she smirked. He finally caught up so he was walking beside her. She really was quite tiny, the top of her head barely coming just above his shoulder. She seemed quite young, now that he could get a good look at her, but something about her felt older and strangely familiar.

"Secondary school, then?"

She giggled, "How old do you think I am, Mr. Smith?"

He tried to avoid the question, "Oh, don't ask me that, it's rude to speculate a lady's age."

"No, no. Guess," she challenged, "maybe you'll be the first to get it right."

"Alright…uhh…Twenty."

She laughed loudly, "That's generous, I'm actually 23. And I'm a schoolteacher. That's my class."

"You're a teacher?" she nodded proudly. "Really, what do you teach?"

"Fifth grade history and world cultures. Every summer I try and travel to a new place and learn as much about it as I can, about how the people live and work, the language if I can manage it, though Norwegian has been something of a challenge. Then I go back, and spend the first few weeks breaking my kids in showing them about the places I've traveled to. They eat it up."

"That's fantastic! So are you here on your own, then?"

"Sort of. My landlady, Mrs. Bøyum, used to work with my parents, retired here to her parents' place and invited me here for the summer. And, tada! Here we are." By this point they had reached the top of the hill and were overlooking a quaint little ocean town, with tiny old beach cottages with thatched roofs, dirt roads, men pulling carts of fish, and children skipping down the roads to the beach. "Come on, then," she called as she ambled down the path. "Fortunately for us we're right close to the beach, so it's not too far." She walked briskly through the little town pointing out landmarks. "There's old mister Albin's shop, he sells fresh fish and things his wife grows in their garden. There's the bookshop, my favorite place in the whole town besides the beach, 'ello Miss Hilda!" She paused and waved to a rotund elderly woman shaking out a floor mat, who greeted her with a toothy grin. "It used to be her husbands shop," JJ whispered, "he died earlier this summer just after I got here. I help her out most days. And that there's the baker, another grocer, though Mister Albin's got the best. Jørgenson will rob you blind, give him the chance. And here we are," she walked up two short sagging steps and opened the front door of the quaint little cottage. "Emelia, I'm back!"

The room was old; not just the physical structure, but it was grey, with grey doilies and grey old photos and discolored furniture that looked like it had been placed forty years ago. It felt like a fading memory. It smelt of mothballs and dusty perfume, and salt; the whole town had a faint salty undertone yet it was noticeably stronger here, and as he followed JJ through to the kitchen he realized why.

The kitchen was a stark contrast to the sitting room; a large pane-less window lined the wall above the sink and stove, framing a beautiful view of the beach and coloring the room with sunlight. The walls were snow-white and decorated with homemade seashell wind chimes that sang quietly with the incoming breeze. The old countertops were dusty around the corners but otherwise the kitchen looked like it had recently had a good scrubbing.

In the center of the counter space under the window stood a plump elderly lady filleting a piece of fresh-cut salmon. Her grey hair sat in a messy nest on her head, and her face was red and wrinkled. She wore a dull floral print dress rolled past her elbows and an apron over top that was covered in bright red splotches of fish.

JJ strode into the kitchen and kissed the woman tenderly on her forehead as if she were her own grandmother. "Hello, Miss Emelia. How was your day today?"

"Oh, it was lovely, I sat on the back porch with Chrissie and she helped me through some of the old photo boxes, we got rid of some of the damaged things. It's so sad," she sighed "letting some of those old things go. Breaks my heart."

JJ smiled faintly, "That's fantastic, though, that she helped you. I'm glad you got to spend some good time with her...how is she feeling?"

Emelia's eyes glassed over slightly, "Not well," she took in a breath, "I don't think there's-"

"-any reason to let worry spoil however many good days you've got with her." JJ gave her an encouraging smile and squeezed her shoulder. "Where is she now?"

"She's up in bed, I think. She was quite exhausted."

"Alright, I'll go upstairs and check on her. Ah, and Emmie, let me introduce you to Mr. Smith, we met down on the beach earlier this afternoon," she reached into the pantry and grabbed an apron, tossing it across the room to the Doctor with a wink. "He'll help you with supper." She flashed a quirky smile and disappeared up a set of rickety stairs. This was an interesting little place, covered in tiny trinkets, and an extraordinary number of photos crammed everywhere, mostly of the same two ladies at various life stages, one of which looked vaguely familiar...

"Doctor?"

"Yes?" He answered distractedly, and turned to face Emelia...and then realized what he had just done. "Right...you called me Doctor, I responded. No hiding it now...how do you know who I am?"

"Oh, it's my job to be able to recognize you, Doctor; at least it was. Though you don't look a thing like what you're supposed to."

"Yep, new face since last I was here-"

She smiled knowingly, "You've regenerated."

"Yes...I'm sorry, who exactly are you?"

She continued her gentle knowing grin as she reached for a photo from beside the sink. "Oh, you don't know me, Doctor. We've never met. But you have met my wife, Chrissie, if only in passing. Many, many years ago, on a planet like this one but so very different..." She held out the photo, which was of two young women standing outside of a hot dog stand in Central Park. "This is Chrissie and I just after she finished the mission taking her to another reality. She was on the task force led by Jake Simmonds that went to the parallel world to destroy the Cybermen. We went on holiday after to celebrate their return, I was terrified she'd be killed and I'd never see her again..."

The Doctor stood holding the photo and staring intently at Emelia, obviously not caring about her love life and desperately trying to figure out the situation. Suddenly his face brightened with recognition, "Ah, Chrissie! I do remember her, Jake ordered her crew after the Cyberleader when they landed, brave girl, good fight she put up. She's your wife?"

Emelia smiled proudly, "Yes, we've been happily married for 52 years now." The Doctor smiled, "That's just lovely, good for her; the both of you," and pulled her into a surprise hug.

"Oh, why thank you-"

"Now," he pulled back quickly and stared seriously into her old grey eyes, "this is important, Emelia; how many years have passed since that mission?"  
"It's been...nearly fifty years now."

"Fifty years...and another thing...do you...know a woman by the name of Rose Tyler?"

Emelia's face darkened slightly, and her answer was short; "Yes."

The Doctor drew in a breath. "What's happened to her?"

Suddenly there was a scream from upstairs, "Emelia!"

The Doctor took off upstairs, Emelia as close behind as her old bones would let her. They reached the top of the stairs and turned into the bedroom; JJ was leaning over Chrissie. She was ghostly pale, her eyes fixed forward and her breathing shallow and staggered. A tiny puddle of vomit was dripping from the edge of the bed to the floor; the rest was on JJ's sweater, who was checking inside her ears with a flashlight.

"Emmie, I'm so, so sorry, but she's gotten much worse very very quickly. We've got to get her back to Torchwood as soon as we can."

"No!" Emelia screamed, "I will not let them touch her! It's their fault she's sick-"

"Emmie!" JJ stood from Chrissie's side and walked to her briskly, grabbing her gently by the shoulders and staring her dead in the eyes; "they're the only ones that can help her, and you know it. You have to make this decision now, let me take her back to Torchwood or she will die."

Emmie burst into tears, "But I know what they'll do to her..."

"And do you know what _this _thing will do to her?" She pointed behind her at Chrissie's twitching body.

Emmie shook her head and sobbed.

"Me neither. You need to trust them. All those years, all of that work for them; you know what they can do. And you know they're her only hope."

Emmie stared desperately into JJ's eyes. "But they'll just use her for experiments..."

She smirked, "Trust me. I know about their obsessions with experiments...But I'm not going to let that happen, I promise."

Emmie heaved another sob as she gazed upon her wife's near-lifeless body. She slowly gave a reluctant nod.

"Alright then," she patted her shoulder and moved quickly towards the door, where the Doctor stood, slightly shocked by the situation. "Alright, sir, gloves are off. I know who you are, I know where you've come from, and yes I saw your TARDIS leave you on the beach. Now, Doctor, you're going to help me, we're taking Chrissie to our version of Torchwood for medical services; stay here with them until I get back."

The Doctor pulled her aside and spoke quietly, "How do you expect to get from Norway to Cardiff in enough time to save this woman, that's nearly 1,500 miles away, even if you boarded a plane this instant it wouldn't be enough time."

JJ smiled, "Oh, we've got resources. Now watch the ladies for a moment, I have to make a call." And she disappeared down the stairs.

The Doctor walked to Emelia and tried to comfort her as she watched Chrissie quivering in pain on the bed.

"There, there...everything is going to be alright..."

"You don't understand, Doctor, what Torchwood is. All that knowledge they've gained...the people they've lost; they've no conscious there, they are only concerned with advancements, new discoveries, ways of gaining power and getting closer to space. They don't care about a poor sick woman. They only care about what's inside of her..," she broke into sobs again.

"What is it, Emmie, what's inside her?"

"An...experiment...they wanted to try to harness some of the most ruthless life forms in the galaxy to work for them...and she is now the product of one of those attempts. I brought her here last winter...I knew they couldn't help her anymore...that thing first stole her memories, then her ability to walk, see, hear, taste, then the rest of her mind has been going...she's dying, Doctor. They've killed her, from the inside out."

JJ cleared her throat from the doorway. "Transport is on their way, Emmie; 5 minute ETA. You might want to gather some clothes and things for the trip. Doctor... can you come help me downstairs make way for a gurney?" The Doctor nodded solemnly and followed JJ downstairs. "Torchwood set up an airstrip about 10 miles out of town for essentially this reason. They knew something like this would happen, but Emmie wanted Chrissie home. That's partially why I stayed here over the summer. Come help me shift the couch."

"Are you with Torchwood too, then? You're not really a teacher, are you?" They each grabbed an end of the couch and moved it so it would be a straight shot to the stairs from the front door.

"Oh, no I really am a teacher; I'm not with them exactly." She hopped on the back of the couch and dangled her feet. "I'm more here on a personal call. My parents were Torchwood. These women were my babysitters growing up, and I had an...interesting childhood. They were very good to me, like a second set of grandmothers. I just want to be sure they're okay."

Suddenly a knock came from the door. "That would be them." She hopped up and grabbed the front door; in came 6 medics and 4 soldiers. JJ stopped the one in command and pulled him aside.

"Alright, Sergeant, my rules here. Emelia goes where Chrissie goes unless she desires otherwise; she is not to leave her side unless it is by her own choice. And nothing gets done to Chrissie, I mean NOTHING, no surgery, treatments, examinations, nothing; without written consent from both myself and Emelia and the option for one or both of us to be present. Also, you will be providing transport to Cardiff for Emelia, myself, and my friend Michael Turner here. If anything falls outside of those perimeters I _will_ be taking it up with the head of Torchwood as a direct citation against you, is that understood Sergeant Graham?"

Sergeant Graham nodded. "Yes ma'am. All commands noted and will be passed on to my team. We have the shuttle ready at the airstrip awaiting your arrival; we will have plenty of space for your friend. Is there anything else you require of us, Miss Sm-"

"No that will be quite enough for now, thank you." By this point, the gurney carrying Chrissie was already down the stairs and heading out the door towards the waiting transport vehicle; Emelia was directly behind being assisted by a handsome young operative. As the team filed out after, the Doctor pulled her aside.

"Michael Turner, what rubbish is that?"

JJ motioned with her eyes to a bookshelf in her direct line of sight; the top row was a series of science fiction novels by Dr. Michael Turner. Her next words were spoken in a barely audible whisper, "whatever you do, Mr. Turner, do NOT let them find out where you've come from. If you do, I can't promise you'll ever go back. And this is no place for you." She stared intently into his eyes, trying to push the invisible weight of the seriousness of her suggestion into his brain. "And Emelia was telling the truth. This is Torchwood's fault, and there is a chance they could have their own agenda. That's why I need you with me. If all else fails, I know they'll listen to you." Sergeant Graham called from the convoy for them to hurry; she smiled. "Come on, then. We've got some grannies to tend to." With that she gently nudged him through the door and closed it behind them, locked it, and jogged to the truck and hopped in.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Within the next 20 minutes, the crew was on a small medical jet screaming its way to Cardiff.

"We should be at the airstrip within the next 10 minutes," Sergeant Graham announced. Chrissie was sedated and surrounded by nurses, while Emmie lovingly stroked her hand. JJ, leaning inside the door watching, nodded silently acknowledging the Sergeant. The Doctor was pacing in the small space behind them, muttering impatiently under her breath. "What's his problem?" Sergeant Graham whispered.

JJ turned from her watch and glared at the Doctor. "Must be some form of claustrophobia, I'll go talk to him." She walked to the Doctor and grabbed him roughly by the shoulder. "What are you doing?" she whispered.

"I do NOT understand how you people can do this waiting thing, it's driving me mad!"

"Oh I'll drive you mad alright! Low profile Mr. Turner, remember? You're drawing attention, and I can't be babying you, I've got more important things to do. Now go sit in the corner there and read or something, we'll be in Cardiff shortly."

"But I don't WANT to go to Cardiff. I don't want to be anywhere NEAR Cardiff, there are people there that I can't afford to run into, and there are events occurring that I should not be a part of; I don't belong in this univ-"

His sentence was interrupted with a sharp slap; the Sergeant and nurses all turned their attentions to them. "Sorry...he was overreacting...claustrophobia, needed a shock," she turned back and stared threateningly into the Doctor's syes, "he's going to go sit in a corner and watch some Mickey Mouse cartoons now and everything will be alright."

The Doctor stared at her open mouthed, speechless. She nodded her head in the direction of the corner, "Go on then."

The Doctor closed his mouth and pointed at her, "You are not the boss of me."

JJ raised her eyebrows, "Mickey Mouse is channel 37." The Doctor shook his finger at her and walked towards the small television screen and began fiddling with the dials.

JJ turned back to the tiny hospital room, Emelia was watching concernedly. JJ walked over to her and sat next to her, watching Chrissie breathe her slow, machine controlled breaths.

"It's going to be okay, Emmie," she whispered, "he knows it's a short trip and I've got him occupied for the rest of the time."

Emelia nodded slowly, "You know..." she said quietly, trying to speak in code to avoid drawing attention from the nurses, "he's a nice young gentleman." She hesitated before continuing, "once we get to Cardiff, you should take him to meet your parents."

JJ stiffened and her face turned stone, "I wasn't exactly intending on paying them a visit this time around."

"JJ, you really should stop by. At least call-"

"Emmie, I didn't ask your opinion on my family relations."

"I don't need you to ask, I think after all these years I've the right to offer you some small guidance," she said sharply, "JJ...they're not getting any younger."

"Do you really think its intelligent to bring HIM, though? Really, Emelia think!" It became suddenly apparent the nurses were doing their best not to eavesdrop, and a soldier paced outside of the door. The Doctor, also sensing a disturbance, walked and hid just outside the doorway, listening. "Emelia," she said quieter, "Now is not the time to be bringing a boy to the house. Think of the shock! I'm not going, and it's not up for discussion." She stood up sharply and turned to leave.

Emelia grabbed her arm, "Jacqueline Jane, you listen to me! If they pass and you haven't spent time with them, that precious time you're denying yourself, you're going to regret that for the rest of your existence, do you want that? You are their only child, and they are your only family, you need to cherish this time-"

"Quite enough of that, thank you." JJ yanked her arm free and stormed out of the room; the Doctor turned and quickly ran back to the television. JJ walked briskly past them towards the cockpit and disappeared inside. The guard shot the Doctor a quizzical and mildly judgmental look as he continued his patrol. The Doctor waited until his back was turned and ducked into the hospital room.

Emelia was again stroking Chrissie's hand, but her head was hanging and her breathing was staggered. The Doctor slowly approached her and sat in the chair JJ had been in. "Emelia..."

"Oh, Doctor," she mouthed silently, still staring into the floor. He put his arm around her shoulder as she cried.

"It's going to be alright, Torchwood is going to get Chrissie all fixed up."

"It's not just Chrissie I'm worried about." She looked up at him with piercing blue eyes, "I'm an old lady. Time is ending soon for Chrissie and I, even if its sooner than I'd like. But JJ...she's got so much life left to live, and I'm so worried she's going to spend it alone..." she heaved a heavy sob, "What I know of you, you're probably one of the few people who might be able to get through to her. Please, try and talk to her, and try get her to see her parents, please. They're all she has, and she's just going to let them go because its too painful to watch," she took another raggedy breath, "they need this visit. You need to take her, they need this. Please, take her, make her go."

"Emmie, I can't make her do anything..."

"Please Doctor..."

"No, Emmie I can't. You know who I am, I can't interfere-"

"Please!" She looked into his eyes, pleading desperately. "Please just try. Wouldn't you have wanted a chance to say goodbye?"

The Doctor didn't move, didn't breath; he simply stared back into Emmie's sad, imploring eyes.

The next moment occurred within the span of a second.

He reached into his jacket.  
He pulled out his screwdriver.  
He scanned Chrissie up and down her torso.  
He held it in front of his eyes and analyzed the data.

His face went white, and his stomach dropped.

He returned the screwdriver to his jacket. "Emmie..." he said shakily, "I am so, so-"

"Attention everyone we are approaching the landing site, I need all personnel to assume landing positions please."

The Doctor jumped up and ran from the room, leaving Emelia frightened and confused as a nurse helped her strap into a landing chair on the wall. He ran towards the center room and jumped into the seat next to JJ and buckled in.

The ambulance transport pulled into the docking bay behind Torchwood 3, and the nurses rushed Chrissie and Emelia out. JJ and the Doctor jumped out from the back of the black Hummer that followed behind carrying the soldiers, and also followed, but were cut off at the door by security.

"I need to see your badges."

"This is a civilian under my watch, he has clearance to proceed," JJ said as she tried to push past.

"We'll then," he snarled, "I need to see his clearance paperwork."

JJ stopped and stood before him with her hands on her hips, obviously pissed off. She barely cleared his chest. "Do you know who I am, sir?"

"Yes, Miss Smith, I know who you are, and to get in I need badges and clearance paperwork. That's the protocol, and no one is exempt from that." He grinned triumphantly.

Suddenly the Sergeant was beside them, flanked by his men. "But a military commander of rank Captain or higher has permission to bring in civilians unquestioned. Now before you anger my charges any further, for your sake, open the bloody doors, you ignorant egotistical prick."

The guards face darkened as he quickly opened the doors and everyone filed inside.

"Officer Murphy?" JJ whispered as she read his badge. She grinned sweetly up at him, "I'll see you fired by the time the day is out. See if you'll not recognize my clearance level next time." She bounced inside at a borderline skip.

They were inside what looked like a hospital, except all of the glass was blacked out. The Doctor stood just ahead at the corner of the wall waiting for her. "I really really need to talk to you, JJ. That thing inside Chrissie-"

"Hush, Mr. Turner, hold for one moment." She grabbed his hand and led him down the hallway to the room the nurses from the jet were lined outside of, sharing medical information with the hospital's doctor. JJ pushed inside, dragging the Doctor behind her; the nurses looked as if they meant to restrain her but left her go inside.

Chrissie was transferred to a more permanent bed, and was hooked up to even more machines. Emelia was still by her side, and two new nurses were working around her hooking up what seemed to be an ultrasound machine.

"They're going to look inside and see if its safe to just pull the thing out..." Emelia whispered hoarsely. One nurse flipped the machine on, while another was rubbing thick globs of petroleum jelly on the old woman's slightly curved belly. The doctor came in and introduced himself as Dr. Carrow, and began explaining the basics of the procedure to JJ and Emmie.

Meanwhile, the Doctor stood in the back corner, watching the scene, the feeling in the pit of his stomach gradually increasing until he nearly felt sick. He watched as Dr. Carrow began the ultrasound, looking for the monster.

For several minutes, the machine showed nothing. Everyone sat on edge and the room was silent, save the beeping of the monitors. "This is quite strange," Dr. Carrow started, "there really ought to be something-"

Suddenly the whole room gasped, as what looked like a tentacle became visible on the screen. Dr. Carrow shifted the handheld to follow it, and the finally revealed the disgusting parasite inside Chrissie. The Doctor did everything in his power to not scream, or run or question the nearest Torchwood agent as to who's bright idea it was to grow one of the most despicable creatures in the known universe inside a human being.

"What is it?" Emelia asked, her voice shaking. She was gripping JJ's hand so tightly it may have broken, but JJ simply sat there, staring stoically at the monitor.

"It is a lab creation, derived from stories from another universe," an old, commanding female voice answered in the back. Everyone turned and faced the tiny wrinkled woman standing in the doorway. "Stories," she continued, "of a creature more loyal than any that's ever existed, and willing to do whatever it is commanded. A creature with such a grasp of perfection they would be admired and feared across the galaxy."

"Serena," JJ's voice was cold and controlled, "what is it called?" she asked, though she already knew the answer. Her voiced sounded as if one wrong word would crack the calm forced veneer.

"We're calling it The Ultimate Soldier, and-"

"WHAT is it called, Serena. Say it!"  
She shouted. JJ stood from her chair and walked to the tiny woman and looked down at her, her eyes flashing violently with anger. "What is it called, Serena? Tell her," she pointed at Emelia, who was shaking and holding Chrissie's hand. "Tell her, Serena. Tell Chrissie's wife what you've done! Come now, show off your good work..."

"It was called a Dalek, and-"

"IS called a Dalek!" JJ shouted. "You were told, you can't change these creatures, all they will ever do is kill anything that's not them, and right now it's killing one of the best agents you've ever had, someone who was TRULY loyal. Someone who NEVER questioned what you asked of her even when that sent her to the edge of death. Someone," she grew quieter "that every single person involved with Torchwood looked up to, and respected for her work. And you-" suddenly Emelia broke into uncontrollable sobs behind her. JJ winced, and a tear trailed hot down her cheek. She shook her finger in Serena's face and looked as if she had something else to say, but she bit her tongue. She turned and sat back in her chair next to Emelia, who whispered something inaudible. JJ nodded and voiced her request with a single word;

"Out."

There was a half moment of hesitation, and then the room silently cleared. A nurse stayed behind to clean the jelly off Chrissie, then quickly ran out of the room under the dark glaring watch of JJ's caramel eyes, leaving only the Doctor with them.

JJ breathed a begrudging, exhausted sigh. "Emmie, if I go to get my parents...will you be alright by yourself here?"

She nodded slowly, still sobbing. JJ wrapped her into a warming hug and squeezed. "We should be back by this evening." She stood slowly and walked towards the door, "You're coming with me," and grabbed his arm, pulling him into the hallway. "The moment were outside of the building," she whispered, "you can scold me and tell me I should have listened to you."

"Listened to him about what?" asked Serena. She had stayed just outside the door, watching. JJ and the Doctor spun around to face the tiny woman. "I know who you are Doctor, and it's out of respect for Jacqueline and her parents that I not have you arrested. You knew about the Soldier before you arrived?"

"Yes," he said through gritted teeth, "and what you have done to that poor woman is revolting and inhumane!"

"Oh, yes Doctor, preach on about sacrificing one person to safe the universe," Serena said accusingly.

"What you're doing isn't saving the universe, if that thing gets out and multiplies it will DESTROY everything, and you too! You can't train it, you can't control it or send it to do your bidding, that's what makes it a Dalek, it doesn't think it doesn't feel, it only kills whatever isn't Dalek."

"You have no idea what were capable of here, Doctor."

"And you have no idea what IT is capable of!"

"Oy, enough then!" JJ shouted. "Serena, I'm going to get my parents. They already know we're here and are expecting the both of us, so don't try and stop us or I'll see to it you'll have hell to pay. Come along, Doctor."

The Doctor froze for a moment as the familiarity of the spoken words sent an echo through his mind, but follow JJ as she pulled him along. "Oh, and Serena, you may want to start getting your resignation in order." JJ and the Doctor stormed out of the door.


	4. Chapter 4

JJ and the Doctor left Torchwood and started walking down the street. She had nabbed a plain white T-shirt that was 3 sizes too large from the laundry room on the way out to replace the vomit-covered sweater she had been wearing since Norway, where they had been just an hour before. "We're going to have to catch a taxi, taxis don't make you skittish, do they?" she was obviously unnerved by something, he figured probably Chrissie and Emmie, but he felt it was something else. Regardless, he knew he had to break it to her that he couldn't stay.

"JJ..."

"It's not going to be long," she said distractedly as she tried to wave down a cab, "it'll probably only be a 10 minute ride or so."

"You're not a fifth-grade teacher, are you?" he asked again as a taxi pulled in front if them.

"Yes, I am. I'll take you to my school sometime. Go on then," she motioned for the Doctor to get in first, but he didn't move.

"JJ, I can't come with you. I can't be a part of this."

JJ was stunned, "wait, what do you mean?"

"JJ, I am not from this universe, I don't belong here. I can't interfere with anything going on."

"But Doctor, it's a Dalek! We need you..."

"No, you don't," he interrupted slowly, "JJ, I was never supposed to be here. I have to find my TARDIS and get back to my universe."

"But you can't just leave, that's not what you do!"

"And how do you know what I am?" he asked angrily, "This is getting really frustrating, everyone seems to know who I am and what's going on BESIDES me!"

JJ hesitated before answering, "Doctor, after the Battle of the Cybermen, many stories were told about you, about what you did and what you sacrificed..."

"Yes, sacrifice, that's ALL I ever do, is make sacrifices, and for what? You don't WANT me fighting this battle for you, Jacqueline Jane, because it will be won, oh yes! But I will lose, EVERYONE will lose, because that's what ALWAYS HAPPENS! Someone ALWAYS gets hurt, and I WILL. NOT. DO THAT. AGAIN." He turned and began walking hurriedly down the busy street.

"Doctor!"

He ignored her and kept walking.

"ROSE TYLER."

He stopped in his tracks.

"You want to know what happened to her," she stated. He turned slowly; she still stood by the open taxi door. "Give me 24 hours," she begged, "to try and convince you to help us. Because I know it's in your nature, and you KNOW we need you."

"No. I can't interfere, and there's just the one. You created it, I'm sure you can figure out what to do with it-"

"That thing is genetically created from stories. If it gets out, there are about 5 people in the universe who are maybe going to know how to handle it."

He looked at the ground, studying the concrete trying to find some excuse to run away.

"Your TARDIS left you here for a reason, Doctor...maybe this is it."

He stared at the ground a moment longer, then looked up at her, slightly tormented. "24 hours. You have until..." he spun around and found a clock on the street, "exactly 5:27 tomorrow to convince me I should help you." He walked huffily back to the cab and climbed in.

JJ nodded nervously, then climbed in behind him and told the driver an address.

"Oh," JJ said suddenly as if remembering something, and punched the Doctor in the arm.

"Ow!" he shouted, "what was that for?"

"Do not. EVER. Rope me in with Torchwood again. I have not and never will work for them. At best, I'm a consultant, that is all."

"A consultant? How has a 23-year old fifth-grade teacher acquired the knowledge to be a consultant for Torchwood?"

"It will be easier to explain when we get to our destination. Don't ask questions til then."

The taxi cab was silent, except for the quiet Beatles music the driver had playing.

"Where are we going?" the Doctor asked.

"The Tyler family estate. You've been there before, correct?"

"Yes..." he answered hesitantly, "though last time I was there it was crawling with Cybermen." The taxi fell into an awkward tense silence.

"JJ...who was that Serena woman?"

"Hmm? Oh, that was Serena Gordon, she's the head of Torchwood 3."

He was slightly shocked, "You threatened the head of Torchwood 3 her with resignation?"

"I have a sort of special privileges," she replied sarcastically; the Doctor didn't seem further interested in the issue and sat contemplatively.

"JJ...answer me this, please..." he asked quietly, "Is she alive?"

JJ watched quietly out the window as they pulled onto a private road, "Yes."

He sighed and readied his next question, "Is she happy?"

She turned and eyed up the Doctor, trying to read his intentions. His bright eyes were shiny with tears that didn't want to come, and drowned the concern and worry and fear that echoed in his the recesses of his consciousness. "We like to think so..." she answered slowly, "she never implies otherwise."

The taxi pulled out in front of the estate and parked at the front door. JJ paid the cab driver, then they both got out of the car. "Stay here for a moment," she told the Doctor, "I'm going to...well...make the introduction." She half smiled; something in her face told him that she didn't really want to be here the same way he did, that they shared that "let me just run away" pit in the stomach feeling. She patted him on the shoulder than turned and nervously skipped up the pathway to the front door, jumped the stairs, took in a deep breath and knocked on the door.

For several moments she stood there bouncing and fidgeting, checking her watch, and peeking around the house. Eventually a maid opened the door, who looked shocked and incredibly pleased at her presence. JJ said a few quiet words to her, which the Doctor couldn't hear and because of her positioning couldn't read. The maid turned serious, and peeked around JJ, staring at the Doctor, then she nodded and disappeared back inside, leaving the door slightly ajar behind her. The Doctor felt that foreboding feeling grow in his stomach as JJ did a little hoppy-skip dance and inspected the sky, her hands deep in the pocket of her jeans. Suddenly, the door opened, and an old, wrinkled man stood just inside, staring at JJ with a mixture of disbelief and excitement. His features were marked by harsh lines and his white hair was sparse atop his head, and his shoulders were slightly hunched. The Doctor stood suspended in a moment of shock as the familiarity of the old man washed over him in memories; but he had been expected.

JJ whispered something to the man, and he grinned so wide his cheeks may have torn, and he pulled her into a deep, intense hug. At first she resisted awkwardly, as if she had forgotten how to hug, but within a moment she relaxed and sank deeply into his embrace. They stood there for a moment holding each other tightly, then the man's eyes opened and he stared straight at the Doctor, as if reacting to something JJ whispered. They pulled away from each other, but he held her by the arms as if afraid to let go. He studied her with his deep brown eyes, interpreting her explanation of the situation, and nodded reluctantly. JJ then turned and motioned to the Doctor that it was safe to approach, and as he got closer he could see that she was crying.

Each step felt forced for him; each step he wanted to turn and run. He tried to puzzle out the situation so that he was prepared for what was about to happen. He was never to see Rose Tyler again; when he left her and his clone on that beach all those years ago, it was to be so she could live out the life he knew he could never give her. And as terrified as he was, he wasn't even certain he still loved her. He shook his head, of course he still loved her; he would always love her. This was the woman who showed him that it was okay to live again, after he had personally destroyed everything he ever knew and loved. But he also in that moment wished that River could be with him, and in the next moment he knew that he loved River in a way that he never could have loved Rose.

At this point he was climbing the stairs, and staring up into the eyes that would have been his, had things been different. Another regeneration, another time, another universe...he was staring bitterly at his life he would have had; he stood on a doorstep that mocked him with the calmness of settling down and bonding to another soul, safety, security, family; something that despite having the TARDIS and River, he would never have, not really.

As he reached the top of the stairs he cast a glance at JJ, who's tears were drying on her cheeks. He sensed a feeling of calmness from her, and a feeling of being grounded that she hadn't had before. The old man still gripped her arm as if letting go would let her slip away, and she stood close to him as if seeking comfort. Her face suddenly broke into a bright and shiny clever smile, one that seemed familiar, though he couldn't quite place it...

Then he realized that what he was recognizing wasn't the smile itself, but the feeling behind that smile; that feeling that he once got when he had figured something out or was about to reveal to someone something incredibly clever and felt so proud of himself; and then, as she began to speak, it dawned on him. How stupid and blind could be be?

"Doctor, I would like to introduce you to my father, Professor John Smith. It's my understanding you've met before."

The man who called himself John Smith smiled warmly and extended a hand. "Doctor," he did that weird tongue flick he used to do when he was excited and feeling clever, and his eyes lit up with curious excitement.

The Doctor took his hand and smiled back emptily, "Professor. You look well."

"You look old," John replied; both men smirked. "So..." he continued, putting his hands in his pockets, "this is what was next for us." He inspected the Doctor up and down.

"Yep," the Doctor replied slightly cynical, "and believe me when I say, you are much better off here."

John half-smiled, then turned to JJ, "Honey why don't you go inside and say hello to your mother." JJ looked at him imploringly; he raised an eyebrow, and she turned to the Doctor seemingly begging for an excuse not to leave.

He didn't understand how he hadn't caught the resemblance earlier; Rose's bright caramel eyes, his smile, the brown messy hair. And the traveling should have been a huge clue.

John gently squeezed his daughter's arm reassuringly; JJ smiled defeatedly back at him and disappeared inside.

The two men stood on the porch awkwardly for a moment, waiting to see who's curiosity would break the ice.

"So," John started, "bow tie, huh?"

The tension instantly dissipated, and it felt like the reunion of two very good old friends. "Yes," the Doctor replied and grinned as he instinctively adjusted his tie, "Bow ties are cool."

"And still not ginger?" he asked, sounding somewhat disappointed.

"No, no not ginger..." then he remembered his screwdriver, "oh but you'll love this!" and pulled it out of his jacket. John took it and turned it over in his wrinkly hands.

"What happened to the old one?"

"Ah, well you see it sort of...melted. Complicated regeneration, this last one."

"Ah," and he handed back the screwdriver. "Got a setting for wood yet?"

The Doctor sighed slightly embarrassed, "No still working on that..."

John smiled and reached into his pocket and pulled out his own sonic screwdriver. It was bronze and slightly bulky with black Gallifreyan etchings on the side, and the tip was a bright jade.

"Look at you," the Doctor smiled faintly, "look at clever old you with a sonic screwdriver." Rose really did get her Doctor after all.

"And that's not all I've got," the old man smiled, "Come on, I want to show you something. And Rose and JJ are going to...need a few minutes anyways." John walked slowly down the stairs and led the Doctor around the side of the house to a door. He opened it and revealed a set of stairs leading down to an old basement. It smelled of earth and metal; the floor was dirt, and the walls were an unfinished cement painted white. The only grey light in the room came from two windows set high on top of the walls at outside ground level. The room was largely empty except for two things; an old wooden door opposite the staircase, and the most obvious object; a large growing coral ball that nearly filled the entire space. There came a quiet humming from it's center that echoed softly in the room.

"It's the TARDIS you gave me before you left us. It should be finished growing any day now," John said proudly. The Doctor walked around the ball inspecting it, peering into the large porous holes at the cylindrical core that throbbed with life. He crouched down next to it, pulling a brown pair of reading glasses out of his coat and putting them on as he studied it. He placed his hand on it's side, staring fascinated into its core.

"You are beautiful..." he whispered breathlessly.

"Isn't it, though?" John said quietly, "we're giving it to JJ as a present once it's done growing, she doesn't know yet. And as fantastic as that is, that isn't even the stunner." John walked to the door on the other side of the room and unlocked it with a key he pulled from a chain hanging around his neck. "Come see this, Doctor."

The Doctor rose, removing his glasses and walked curiously to the door, which John opened and motioned for him to enter. The Doctor stepped through the door...into another fully grown and functioning TARDIS. The inside was vaguely reminiscent of his own TARDIS, with the console in the center, and stairs leading to an endless supply of hidden rooms. The interior was a shiny bronze with black accents, like John's screwdriver, and the walls were covered with various Gallifreyan writings.

"Do you like what we've done with it, Doctor?" John asked proudly. "JJ wrote all the Gallifreyan herself, I taught her the language. She's gotten quite good, actually."

The Doctor stood stunned and bewildered at the TARDIS. Suddenly he turned and stood eye-to-eye with John, "Where did you get this?" he asked accusingly, a hint of anger in his voice.

"What do you mean, where did we get this?" John asked, surprised and slightly offended.

"I mean, how in Rassilon's name did you get a second TARDIS?" His mind jumped to his own missing TARDIS.

"You didn't send it...?" John asked bewildered. The look on the Doctor's face answered his question. "It appeared the evening Rose and I got married with a note," he said puzzled, "she and I assumed it was a present from you, seeing as we knew no one else with access to a TARDIS."

"Why would I send you a TARDIS?" The Doctor asked, "Doing so would mean breaching the void, you know that, and you know how dangerous that is! That's why I left you with the TARDIS seed, I had no intention of ever coming in contact with this universe again."

"Well believe me, Doctor we never expected to ever see or hear from you again, either. In fact, what are you doing here?"

"The TARDIS left me at Bad Wolf Bay and disappeared, I have no idea where she is."

John's face twisted into an even more confused expression, "She LEFT you? How did she just leave you? Why would she do that? What did you do?"

"Well I don't know, if I did I wouldn't be here at all now would I?" The Doctor shouted. He stared into John's eyes for another moment before turning and walking to the console. He walked around it in circles, inspecting it with a distant contemplative look.

"If you didn't send the TARDIS," John asked, "then who did?"

"I don't know," the Doctor replied, "and to be honest I don't really care, it's none of my business." He placed his hands on the console stared into the core emptily, as if slightly conflicted.

"You may be able to fool everyone else here," John started quietly, "but you can't fool me. I know how we work. And I know you won't turn away from trouble, and you won't turn away from Rose." The Doctor remained silent. "This TARDIS has never given us problems, we've had it almost 50 years. I think if it was sent with malicious intentions we'd have known by now."

"Well then you needn't worry, I'm sure your answers will turn up soon enough." He straightened himself and walked to one of the walls, distractedly inspecting the Gallifreyan writing. "Why," he mused, "would you need a second TARDIS? Whoever sent him had a reason, and if it wasn't to hurt you it must have been to help you, unless the time hasn't come for him to turn on you yet." He turned and went back to the console, pulling out his screwdriver and scanning it.

"Him?" John asked.

"Yes," the Doctor answered as he examined the readings on his screwdriver, which confused him. "Yes, your TARDIS is a he, didn't you know?" He eyed John curiously.

"I've tried to scan it, pull it apart, inspect it, but it won't let me anywhere past the console, even for repairs. It's strange, if something gets damaged it locks us out for a few days and seemingly fixes itself. It's like it doesn't trust me or Rose, it doesn't want us anywhere near its heart."

"Well that's just silly, a TARDIS doesn't just fix itself, it needs, well..." he turned and faced John smiling, "it needs a doctor."

"You had to say it..."

"Yes, but not just any doctor, and I'm not talking about me, he reacted negatively even just now when I had my hands on his console, he doesn't want me or you or Rose, there's someone that he's already bonded to, and whoever he or she is, is probably who sent you your TARDIS. He needs," the Doctor paced around the console where he knelt next to a bolted shut door at the base of a console "whoever or whatever is in there with him. They've locked themselves inside it's center, right next to his heart, and if we're going to solve this," he pointed his screwdriver at the door, "we've got to get them out."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," John warned. The Doctor stood up and walked to John, staring at him as though he were the dumbest being in the universe. "Are you thick? Of course I'm not going to just sonic it, whatever this TARDIS is protecting he doesn't want anyone near it, not yet. But we still might be able to figure it out without actually opening him up." He took in a deep breath, "Professor, I'm going to have to talk to Rose. And," he said as he started to walk out of the TARDIS, "I'm going to need to see the note that was left with it."


	5. Chapter 5

The Doctor and John came up the stairs leading to the inside of the house, which let them out into the kitchen, where the maid was busy cooking some dinner. She was a homely middle age plump Irish woman with a mess of red hair poking out of a cap, and her face was bright red from the heat of the stove. She turned to greet them as they came through the door.

"Oh hello, Professor! And hello Doctor, it's an honor to have you as our guest. Will you be joining us for dinner this evening?"

"Ah...I don't really think that's-"

"Of course he is Mathilda," John patted him on the back, "go ahead and make dinner for the five of us." He began to walk from the kitchen, with the Doctor at his heels, when Mathilda ran to John and grabbed his arm.

"Sir," she said quietly, "you may want to hurry to the study. It just sounded like there was a slight disagreement going on between the Miss and the Missus, and Missus didn't want me in the room." Her eyes shone with concern.

John's face dropped, "Thank you, Mathilda, I'll go see to them." He pulled the Doctor out of the room and down the hall, mumbling "this is what I was afraid of."

"Does JJ and Rose not get along?" The Doctor asked thoroughly confused.

John laughed slightly bitterly. "Put it this way; Rose is very much Jackie's daughter, and in the same way JJ is VERY much Rose's girl. They're very much alike and don't want to admit it. And JJ...well," they were stopped just outside the study, "she's not visited in quite some time."

"Mum," they heard JJ's strained voice from inside, "just please drop it."

"I'm just worried for you Jaqueline," an old female voice replied, "it's been 3 years now since we've seen you! Yes you write and you call sometimes, but three years! That's an awfully long time!"

"It's not to me mum!" JJ was obviously trying to hold her temper, "I'm sorry, I've been busy with the kids and traveling..."

"So you've got time to visit your school kids and visit Emelia and Chrissie in Norway, you have time to take care of Chrissie because she's sick and old, but you don't have time to see your own parents? Are we just not that important to you?"

"No mum, you two mean everything to me, you know that..."

"Then why don't you visit?" Rose begged. "Your father and I are getting old, and we would like to spend time with our daughter before-"

"Don't you DARE say it!" JJ shouted angrily.

"Jacqueline-"

"NO, MUM!"

"Uh oh..." John whispered, and went to reach for the door handle.

"Jacqueline Jane Smith don't you DARE raise your voice at me!" Rose shouted raspily, "All we want is to see you!"

"Then I'll send pictures! It's not like I ever look any different!"

"You know that's not what I mean..."

"Stay in the hall," John whispered as he quietly eased the door open; they could see JJ pacing in the center of the room, but Rose was blocked from view. "Mum, you don't get it, do you? Oh you're so thick; you think you and dad of ALL people would understand..."

"Understand what, Jacqueline? Because I really want to know what goes on in your head that you can see EVERYTHING else as more important than seeing your own parents!"

Suddenly JJ snapped, "I CAN'T WATCH YOU DIE, MUM!" JJ shouted as loud as her lungs would let her. "You don't understand!" She began crying uncontrollably, and her eyes were on fire. "When I lose you, I have to live a VERY long time after that, and I will be alone! And when I don't have to watch you get old I can forget that, even if for just a little bit, and I can pretend that you're still young and safe. But when I'm here, it's like I'm being stabbed in the heart over and over; I'm forced to watch your time running out, and I have to pretend it doesn't hurt, but mum, it's KILLIN' me! And I don't expect you to know what that FEELS like, but maybe for TWO SECONDS try and PRETEND you can imagine that!"

John walked up behind JJ and tried to put his arms around her, but she pushed him away and ran from the room. She ran past the Doctor trying to hide her tears and thumped up the staircase, slamming a door upstairs that was presumably to her room.

"Rose, dear," John said gently from inside, "we talked about this."

Rose was softly crying, "I just wanted her to understand she's not the only one being hurt..." she moaned.

The Doctor had been vaguely intrigued by something JJ had said...'I have to live a very long time...'

He quietly walked away from the study door and slowly up the stairs, trying not to make any noise. When he got to the top of the stairs he made a right where it sounded like JJ had gone. Her door was the second one down, and was slightly ajar from bouncing when she had slammed it. He eased it open; the room didn't look very lived in, and looked like it belonged to a child. The walks were a light blue with a white chair rail running around the whole room, and dozens of children's drawings hung from it. A white wooden twin bed was in the dead center of the room, with a blue quilt and matching pillows and two dozen stuffed animals in a neat pile at the end of it. On each side of the bed there was a window; it was dark now, and the moon was the main light source in the room. In the window to the right was a giant electronic telescope that was hooked up to a computer at a desk right next to it, where JJ sat, her head sagging in her hand. Several tissues littered the desk and the floor, and a box of cheese-it's were laid out scattered across the desk and was the only clutter in the room.

"You're an idiot," she said hoarsely. For a moment the Doctor wasn't certain if she was talking to herself or to him; then she turned and faced him, her eyes on fire and her cheeks tear-streaked.

"I'm sorry?" He asked as hesitated just inside the door.

"You...you're a self-absorbed distracted idiot."

He didn't quite know how to react to her.

"Come in," she said; he came in the room and shut the door behind him. "You really don't want to be here do you?" There was a sharpness in the accusation that told him not to answer, and he felt he was standing on an endless lake of thin ice. "You really truly are the most self-absorbed self-pitying creature in the universe, you know that? You force yourself to be blind to something that's SCREAMING in your face, because you don't want to man up and deal with your own pain." She stood from her chair and began walking slowly towards him. "I can understand not seeing me as my parents' daughter, that I can almost excuse. I can understand the excuse of not wanting to help with Torchwood and the Dalek, not wanting to mess with our time stream. I can get you being distracted wanting to find your TARDIS. But really," she asked as she tilted her head accusingly, just a foot away from him, "how the hell did you not see what I am?"

The Doctor stood bewildered before her, for once in his life afraid to speak. Her eyes flashed when he still didn't understand her point; she turned and walked to her telescope.

"Come over here, Doctor." She called for him to join her as she peered through it, making a few adjustments, then backed away and motioned for him to have a look. "Tell me what you see."

He cautiously approached the telescope, and then took a look through. He saw a hauntingly familiar galaxy, thousands and thousands of light years away…the first galaxy he ever left. Except…he jerked away from the telescope, and stared at her alarmed.

"Nothing! I see nothing," he whispered, "where's Gallifrey, what's happened to it? Even in a time lock, it doesn't just, cease to exist! It's got to be there."

"It didn't cease to exist, Doctor…it never existed." She walked to a bookcase that stood next to the doorway and chose a massive college level astrology book. She opened a premarked page and handed it to him; he scanned the page as she explained. "According to the research done at Torchwood, the solar system that dad says Gallifrey is located in your universe suffered a premature supernova; the sun in that system didn't stop expanding, burning the planets that would have formed in its orbit, and then imploded. There never was a Gallifrey. And," she said edgily, "there never were any Time Lords. No such thing exists in this universe." She paused, allowing him to take in the information for a moment before continuing. "Except…" she then leaned over her desk and opened the bottom drawer and pulled out a file. She shuffled through it, and found what she was looking for; an ultrasound photo of an 8 month along baby; and handed it to him. He held it under the light of the moon and inspected it.

"Two hearts..." he whispered, "This baby's got two hearts, how is that possible, then if there's no such thing as Time Lords here," he turned back to face JJ. Her face was dark, and sad. No, not sad; hauntingly and familiarly lonely.

"How old do you really think I am, Doctor?" she whispered, her throat catching on the words, eyes glistening.

The pit of his stomach suddenly turned rock hard and twisted. "You said you were twenty-three," he said, though in his head it was already starting to come together.

She half smiled, "Thank you for being generous earlier and granting me twenty, ordinarily I get pegged somewhere between 16-18."

"So twenty-one, then?" he whispered brokenly. Suddenly he felt it; he had always felt it, since he arrived, but his mind didn't want to accept it and hid it; a psychic wave of decades of a pain much worse than loneliness, more agonizing than being the last of your kind and colder than the loss of a species, but a forcibly masked and utterly indescribable emptiness.

JJ stepped back close to him and held out her tiny pale arm, wrist and palm facing upwards. "You're a Doctor, I'm sure you know how to check a pulse."

The Doctor stared at her sadly as he reached up and placed his fingers on her radial artery...and felt the familiar pulse of a Time Lord.

"I'm fourty-seven, Doctor," she smirked as a tear finally escaped and trailed down her cheek. She inhaled, trying to maintain hold of her emotions as she pulled her arm back and turned away from him.

He suddenly felt a rush of compassion and sadness for this girl. "JJ..."

"Have you got any idea of what it's been like?" her voice cracked bitterly as she asked the question. She turned back to face him, and again her caramel eyes were burning, "Can you imagine, growing up and being like this, looking 10 years old in High School, your classmates calling you a freak, watching your friends age twice as fast as you and marry and have children and grandchildren?" she swallowed as another hot tear escaped and trailed down her cheek. "Imagine," she continued angrily, "having doctors the first half of your life telling you the second heart should be surgically removed, that you won't live to be an adult, and the second half of your life having those same doctors try and tie you down for experimentation? Can you imagine what it's like having no connection, no history, no home, a longing for a sky you've never seen and has never been seen by anyone in the history of time, because it doesn't exist!" She inhaled deeply before continuing, "Imagine a desire for belonging that will never come, and the knowledge that centuries would pass and you'll never know another soul that can empathize with you; knowing that you are the only one in the entirety of the universe who will have the privilege" she spat the word "to watch it age and grow and change, and knowing that not only will you be doing it alone but you'll watch everything you love reach its time and slip...slip away...?" She couldn't finish her sentence; she finally burst into tears and slumped onto her bed burying her head in her hands.

The Doctor stood staring at her, not quite sure of what to do or how to comfort her. But he did understand her pain. He stepped beside her and sat down, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her close for a hug. This must be why the TARDIS left him here; a new time lord, all alone. Just the same as him.

"They're getting old, Doctor," she whispered between sobs, "Mum's just turned 73 and Dad's going on 80, and neither of them are well. I know mum is sick and just isn't telling me, I can feel it."

"I'm going to lose them, Doctor, and then I'm going to be all alone. And you can zip around in your bigger-on-the-inside box and steal people's hearts and go on adventures to pass your time, you can be a storybook hero and that's alright for you. But I don't think I can live that kind of life. I can't be alone, I need someone and I know it. And when they die, I'm losing the only two people in the entire universe who understand who and what I am, and there's never going to be anyone to replace that, not ever." She buried her face into his shoulder and sobbed.

The Doctor held her and tried to comfort her as he was taking in this information.

He was holding another Time Lord. A new Time Lord. And the only one in this universe. But, if there is no Gallifrey, how did Rose and John manage to give birth to her? Then he remembered the two TARDISes sitting in their basement.

"It appeared the evening Rose and I were married, with a note," John had said.

"Of course..." he whispered.

"Of course what?" JJ asked through sniffles.

"Uh...JJ I have to go speak to your mother right now...it's very important, it could change everything" he squeezed her shoulders and stood up, "I'm so sorry, I'll be right back," he promised as he backed quickly out of the room. He ran down the stairs and rounded the corner, bursting into the study.

"Rose," he started; then stopped in his tracks. He had not been prepared.

Rose was sat on the brown leather couch wrapped in John's arms. He hair was grey-white, and was pulled back into gentle half-ponytail. Her frame was tiny and wiry; she looked sick...very sick; and despite it being the end of summer she was wrapped in a quilted blanket. She had been crying; she looked up at the Doctor with sad, familiar brown glistening eyes.

"You've changed..." she whispered in an old raspy voice.

The Doctor stood stunned in the center of the room, flexing his fingers, uncertain of what to do.

"What's happened to you?" she asked, "My Doctor I've seen stare at Emperor of the Daleks and laugh; I've seen him bring down a dictator with 4 words and make monsters run at the mention of his name. I've seen him run and fight and love and be so much more than any of us ever could be. And you," she said as a tear trailed from her cheeks, "JJ said you tried to leave. You tried to leave us with a Dalek, and worse yet, you tried to leave on your own. You're never alone..." another tear escaped and slid down her cheek as John squeezed her shoulder for comfort, "What's happened to you," she asked. "What have you done with my Doctor?"

She was right; he had changed. He was so much not the man he had been when he had seen her last, and those words made him realize just how much he had changed; perhaps he had been running too long.

* * *

JJ sat alone on her bed in her room; she sniffed and wiped the salty tears from her cheeks. So much for this legendary Doctor her parents had told her of, he seemed more inclined to run away from the slightest bit of trouble then risk his life to save a planet. She was feeling more inclined to loathe him at the moment then respect or admire him.

"Never meet you heroes," she mumbled as she collapsed on her bed. She was still wearing the oversized Torchwood undershirt and her jeans, which had a little vomit on them from Emelia and Chrissie's house. She rolled her eyes as she caught the smell, and reluctantly pulled herself up to change. This was the very reason she never came to visit; she felt the pain in her heart and pit of her stomach reminding her simply through proximity that her parents were very close to dying. And ever since the Doctor arrived, she had a strange distracting tug at the back of her brain that she found hard to ignore.

She pulled on a pair of grey sweatpants and a white tank top under a significantly oversized black T-shirt, and pulled her shiny brown hair into a messy ponytail; there is no way she was leaving the house again tonight. She threw the dirty clothes into a pile on the floor while she pulled on a pair of moccasins. She paused in front of the mirror and inspected her reflection; and it made her want to cry again. She looked like a high school prep girl in her pajamas.

"I'm 47 years old..." she whispered, almost with the intention of reminding herself. She half-laughed, "what I wouldn't give for a single wrinkle." She shook her head and scooped up the dirty laundry and carried it out the door, and silently tried to move down the stairs; she didn't want anyone to hear her and make a fuss, in fact she would be quite content to stay hidden in her room and chart stars.

Suddenly she heard her name, "You know JJ is a Time Lord, yes?" The Doctor asked, presumably to her parents.

"Of course," her father answered, "we knew the second the ultrasounds started showing a second heartbeat."

"Do you have any idea how that happened? I mean, neither of you were just suddenly Time Lords, right?"

"No, of course we're not," Rose answered, "but we thought it was just a lucky combination; John's half Time-Lord DNA and being time travelers and my Bad Wolf energy..."

"Wrong," the Doctor interrupted quietly. "A Time Lord can be born from two humans, if they are conceived inside the Time Vortex, I know, I've seen it happen...new discoveries." JJ could hear the proud excitement in his voice.

"You've...seen it happen?" John's voice was a mix of comical disgust and intrigue.

"Well, not literally seen it happen, but I do know another Time Lord in my universe, well Time Lady actually, who was conceived in the Time Vortex with two human parents."

"You met another Time Lord?" Rose asked excitedly.

"Well...yes..." The Doctor answered slightly uncomfortably.

"Who is she?"

The Doctor hesitated before answering, "No one we know, Professor," he said delicately "completely 100% new Time Lord, just as JJ is which brings me to the next point, which is very important, where did you get your TARDIS?"

"I told you," John answered, "it was an gift sent on our wedding night."

"Ah, so you take an anonymously sent TARDIS on your wedding night, just walk in and...well..." his voice grew awkward, "poof, baby? How did you know this TARDIS wouldn't kill you, that it wasn't set to destruct or take off with you somewhere?"

"I told you, we thought YOU sent it. The note even said to wash the sheets, that's something you would say!" John replied.

"Yes, maybe, but I didn't send it, and that TARDIS didn't like me touching his console very much, I don't think he'd fly for me if I begged. So the question is...who sent it, and how did they know that it's what you needed to...well...make JJ what she is?"

Suddenly, JJ noticed a strange song playing, like a voice singing, but...it sounded like it was coming from everywhere. It started softly and slowly got louder...it was the most beautiful music she had ever heard in her life. She turned from the door and walked down down the hall; the singing got louder the closer she got to the kitchen.

JJ walked into the kitchen, slightly dazed, and the music was so loud she could barely hear Mathilda,

"Oh hello, Miss, dinner is just about ready," she said, but JJ just walked by towards the stairs. Mathilda was confused, "Miss are you alright? Are you going to be joining us?"

"No..." JJ replied distantly, "I, uh..." She opened the door to the basement; the music was almost deafening, "can't you hear that?" She asked; Mathilda stared at her confused.

"Miss, why don't you come sit..." Mathilda asked.

"No, I'm alright..." JJ smiled, "I'm going to be while, don't wait for me," she said, perhaps slightly too loudly, as she disappeared down the staircase to the basement.

* * *

"We don't know who sent it," John replied as he squeezed Rose gently. He stood up and walked across the room to the computer.

"It would have to be someone who would want a Time Lord, and in this universe that significantly limits it to the number of people who actually know who that is."

"Well, with a TARDIS, it could be any of us," Rose suggested, "we just haven't done it yet. "

"Except we wouldn't have reminded ourselves to wash the sheets and have fun," John pointed out; Rose smirked.

"Alright enough you two; if we didn't send it, who did?"

"I really think we need to focus on the bigger problem of Torchwood secretly growing a Dalek inside of a human," John said from the screen, "the TARDIS isn't going anywhere and if its not any of us there's really not much we can do about it."

"And that's our friend they're growing that thing in, I've known Chrissie since I got here; she helped me settle in. I can't believe they'd do this to her."

"Well," the Doctor suggested, "maybe we should go and have a talk with Miss Serena Gordon and the rest of her Torchwood crew."

"Well we could do that," John agreed as he turned from the computer screen, grinning cleverly, "but we shouldn't do it alone." Suddenly the phone rang; he reached for it and checked the caller ID.

"Who is it?" Rose asked.

"It's Becky Barnsdale," John continued smiling excitedly, "I just sent out an email to the old Torchwood team. We should be expecting a few more of these calls shortly," he answered the phone. "Becky! Hello old girl, how are you? Yes, you got the message? Mmhmm. Well, I was thinking, gather everyone round at the coffee shop on the street corner across from Torchwood at oh, say 10 o'clock? Then we'll go on over and pay them a visit. Yes, I sent Dr. Weaver a separate email, he's...just replied," as he clicked on the computer, "yep, he's going to reinstate our handprints so we can get in without a problem. Alright, perfect; we'll see you tomorrow."

"What are you doing?" Rose asked.

John grinned as the phone rang again, "I'm building us an army."

* * *

JJ slowly creeped down the stairs to the dark basement; the moon shone in, casting a pale blueish light on the two Tardises. The music was deafeningly loud now; she could barely hear herself think, yet she couldn't turn away. But where was it coming from? The basement was bare except for the TARDISes, there was no one down here. And how hadn't Mathilda heard this?

JJ moved about the room, trying to locate the source of the music; it's seemed to be coming from the growing TARDIS. She walked around it, mesmerized, inspecting it; the music was the only thing she could think or hear. She placed a hand on its side, stroking it with a distant look in her eyes.

Suddenly the core of the growing TARDIS began to glow a soft, warm gold. She felt an instinctive pull to crawl inside it; with nothing but the music in her ears, she wiggled into one of the larger holes in its coral shell, and curled up into a ball. It was remarkably comfortable and warm there, and safe. Away from the fear of losing her parents, and daleks, and the Doctor. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the core of the TARDIS as sort of pillow. The gold warmth seeped into her entire being, filling her with the happiest most peaceful feeling she had felt in her life.

* * *

There came a knock at the study door, then Mathilda timidly let herself in, "Pardon me Professor, dinner is ready."

"Perfect," John walked back across the room and helped Rose to her feet, "do you want to walk or do you want the chair?"

"Walk," Rose snapped, then glanced at the Doctor; he smiled and pretended he hadn't heard. As John led her to the dining room, he glanced around the study, and saw hidden in a corner a silver well-used wheelchair. The Doctor sighed painfully; he didn't want to see Rose like this. He could only imagine what JJ was feeling.

He jogged from the study to catch up with the others in the dining room.

"Is JJ joining us?" The Doctor asked.

"Miss Jackie went downstairs a few minutes ago," Mathilda replied as she served beef stew to Rose.

"She said not to wait on her, I set her aside some soup for when she comes back up."

"She's probably gone down to the TARDIS," John said. "She used to go down there all the time when she was younger, practically lived down there some days."

Everyone began to eat.

"So..." The Doctor asked, "tell me more about JJ? And yourselves, how have you been getting on here?"

"Well," Rose started, "after John was here, it made things a little easier for me," she reached across the table and squeezed his hand, "there's so much that's different here Doctor, you wouldn't believe it; and it's all little things, things that maybe some people wouldn't notice, like...the air tastes different here. And there's little differences in geography, like, Bad Wolf Bay doesn't exist in your world, and all the streets in Cardiff are wrong, that took getting used to. And there's different aliens here...there is no Gallifrey, and there were no naturally occurring Daleks that we know of, that's one of the first things we looked for once we had a TARDIS."

"So, this TARDIS, just left...where?"

"It was left in our backyard, the evening we got married. We'd just got home, we were all packed for our honeymoon, Jackie was fussing over us as usual, when suddenly we heard it; it sounded just like yours. We rushed out the back and saw it sitting there, just a door in a field, with a note on it that said "Congratulations, enjoy the TARDIS and have fun. PS clean the sheets." The keys were taped to the outside; we walked in, I did a systems check and didn't find anything malicious whatsoever, and we cancelled our honeymoon plans and went to Giornea instead. Jackie was not entirely pleased."

"Interesting," the Doctor muttered distractedly into his soup, "Well it sounds like you've got friends somewhere, or you will have friends in the future..." Something was wrong. Something was very very wrong and he could feel it, somewhere something was happening and it hurt...

Suddenly he jumped up from his chair, "Where's JJ?" he asked alarmed.

John and Mathilda stood from their seats, startled, "She went downstairs while you were in the study, sir," Mathilda stammered. The Doctor jumped away from the table and took off for the kitchen.

"Mathilda, stay with Rose," John ordered urgently as he chased him.

The Doctor flung open the door and ran down the stairs to the basement, then stopped in shock. "John!"

John was right behind him, "What, what is it?" He stopped just short of the Doctor, and they both stared at the empty space where the growing TARDIS had been sitting just hours before. "No! Where has it gone?" John asked.

"I don't know, but it must have something to do with JJ," he walked toward the empty space and began scanning it with his screwdriver.

"But where is she? How do you know?"

"Because I felt her; all Time Lords have a psychic link, you know that, and just then something or someone was hurting her very badly."

"Well, where is she now, then?"

"I don't know..."

Suddenly there was a loud banging coming from inside the other TARDIS; John and the Doctor ran to it and flung open the door, and a body dropped heavily into the Doctor's arms as he collapsed under her weight.

"JJ!" John shouted; the Doctor turned her over and held her in his arms; she was soaking wet in some strange goo that was specked with small bits of rock all over her body. She was barely conscious and whispering something inaudibly, and gripping the Doctor's arm; she was terrified. "Get her a blanket, she's freezing," he demanded; John disappeared and shouted orders up to Mathilda; Rose could be heard trying to shout.

The Doctor looked into JJ's unfocused eyes as they darted around the room, "What's happened to you?" He shifted her so she was laying in his lap as he pulled his jacket off and went to wrap it around her, then he noticed her hair; it was covered in the goo and stone just as the rest of her, but instead of being stopped at her shoulders as it had been earlier, it was now grown down almost to the middle of her calves and tangled all over her. Her eyes continued to dart around the room, as if she couldn't see, and she began to shake. "JJ," he whispered as John watched from the staircase, "what happened?"

Suddenly her eyes locked into his, but they were distant and unfocused; she gripped his arm and whispered grittily, "How old am I?" A violent giant shiver passed through her whole body as Mathilda came running down the stairs with one of Rose's quilts, and she passed out in his arms.

John wrapped the quilt around her tiny body, and pulled her into his lap. The Doctor watched silently as Mathilda helped Rose down the stairs and over to John and an unconscious JJ. He studied her face, puzzling her question in his head, "How old am I?" Suddenly the answer occurred to him, and he drew in a breath. He stood up slowly and stared at her in disbelief. "John...Rose..." he said quietly, "look at her."

"What do you mean?" Rose asked.

"Look; I mean really look at her, look at her face does anyone else notice anything different?"

Both parents studied those daughters face; Rose didn't seem to understand, but John's face grew dark as he saw what the Doctor saw.

"You're both going to have to be very brave for her right now," the Doctor whispered.

"What do you mean, what's wrong with her?" Rose asked; John looked to the Doctor, begging him to explain.

"Rose..." he said quietly, "that's not the same JJ we saw a few hours ago..."

"What do mean?" She looked up at him terrified.

"She's older, Rose...about 50 years older I'd guess, she's got to be nearly 100."


	6. Chapter 6: JJ and her TARDIS

JJ woke up on the couch in the study; the windows were all opened, and the curtains billowed in a warm gentle summer breeze that smelled of daffodils and honey and old books. She sat up slowly and stretched, feeling strangely refreshed, as if waking up from the most amazing nap she'd ever taken. She sat on the couch, enjoying the beautiful weather of the day and the calmness of the moment; the silence, and overwhelming sense of peace. She was in her favorite blue flannel horse pajamas and had her favorite green fluffy slippers, and her favorite sleeping toy, a small greying dog, lay on the couch where she had been just resting.

As she was enjoying this perfect moment, she remembered what she had been just dreaming of before she woke; she had been in the basement, she had followed the strange song that played in the back of her head to the growing TARDIS, and had crawled into one of the holes big enough for her, and touched its core, and suddenly the world was beautiful and golden and warm. Her father had been there...where was father? She wanted to tell him about the dream.

She stood up and began walking through the house; everything was strangely clean and every window was open and the world smelled wonderful, like every good smell from your childhood was floating in little puffs and pockets in the air.

She walked into the kitchen, hoping to find Mathilda and maybe get a snack. The kitchen was empty, but the kettle was on, and just starting to steam; perfect, she could go for some raspberry-pomegranate tea right now. As she poured herself some tea, she sensed another presence nearby; she turned around slowly and saw a young man sitting in the dining room, leaning casually in a chair, legs crossed.

"Who are you?" JJ asked casually. He wasn't a threat. This wasn't a question or a concern in her mind, simply a statement. This strange handsome man that she had never seen was the literal personification of safe.

"I'm your TARDIS." He answered simply. The most shocking part of him was that his accent was American.

JJ stood slightly dazed and confused, "My...TARDIS?"

"Yes," he replied. "Father said I was to be yours once I was grown, and here I am."

"Uh huh...but how are you here?" She asked, "I mean, how am I talking to you? Not to sound rude, but...you're a-"

"Non-communicative non-human sentient being, how are you human in my dining room?"

JJ was even more confused as he stole the words from her mouth. He smiled softly, "The situation is a little complicated, Miss, you better come sit and we'll talk."

JJ approached him and inspected him as she sat; he would be tall, if he were standing, and was very thin. He had dark slicked back hair, and tiny glinting blue eyes set under a slightly large forehead. His smile was warm and comforting as he waited for her to sit. He wore black suit pants and dress shoes, a white button down suit shirt and a satiny looking mahogany colored vest.

"So...explain." She said as he sipped her tea.

"What are you wearing?" He asked.

"What?" Suddenly JJ became slightly self conscious at the idea of being with this handsome stranger in her pajamas. "Oh, it's nothing," she answered sheepishly, "they were my favorite clothes."

"Were." he echoed.

"Yeah, were..." Suddenly it dawned on her...these pajamas stopped fitting her 30 years ago, when she had the physical appearance of a 10 year old, yet now they were loose and slightly worn, just as she had liked them. And her green slippers had gotten destroyed by walking in the mud one morning when she was 21 and had gotten thrown away, yet here yet were bright and fluffy as ever. And her stuffed puppy ought to be sitting on her bed in Norway.

JJ jumped out of her chair. "What's going on?" She asked frantically. Suddenly the awkwardness of the situation dawned on her; the house being too clean, and quiet and empty. "Where are my parents and Mathilda and who are you?" she asked again.

"I told you, I'm your TARDIS," he replied gently, "Do you remember where you were before you woke up here?"

She tried to remember, but everything was so hazy, "We'll...I mean I had a weird dream..."

"About crawling inside me." He finished. JJ nodded. "It wasn't a dream," he explained, "that's what happened before you passed out. You see, I needed you to finish growing. Well, not you specifically, but I needed an energy surge powerful enough to essentially jump start my existence."

"How did you get that from me?" JJ asked, gripping the back of the chair.

"You're a Time Lady. You posses regeneration energy. Essentially I stole the energy for a regeneration from you to create myself. I didn't intend to cause you any harm, but you lost consciousness inside me, and unfortunately my first instinct was to travel to the time vortex, which is where we are now."

JJ slowly sat back down and took another sip of her tea as she tried to soak in the information. "But...how are we in the time vortex if we're inside my parents dining room?" She asked.

"When you passed out, you curled up around my core; the man with the bow tie refers to it as my heart at some point, which is the best point of reference for you. Out of concern for you, I entered your consciousness, creating a sort of psychic link. Using your memories I created this place for you, inside of our minds, using your favorite clothes, smells, tea...things that are familiar to you, and safe."

"What about you? How are you human? Am I imagining you?"

He smirked, "Sort of. I've gone through your memories and created a prototype of your ideal male companion using components of people already in existence."

JJ half-smiled, "that explains why you look an awful lot like one of my favorite characters on this spacey show I used to watch."

"Yes, my appearance was largely drawn from your space-travelling surgeon you so admired."

JJ blushed. "So...we're in the time vortex. Can't you just take me back?"

The TARDIS's face fell, "Unfortunately not. My instinct to leave was triggered by a brewing paradox; a few moments after we left something would have happened to disrupt the time stream had we stayed, we can't go back."

"So...what does that mean for me then?" JJ asked slowly, "how do I get home? I have to get back there, I need to help with the Dalek."

"Miss, I looked into your memories, and there's another reason we can't go back."

"Why?" JJ asked.

"According to what I can see, I am the TARDIS you grew up with; the TARDIS that appears to your parents on their wedding night is me."

"How are you the same TARDIS? We have no idea who left it there, where do you go after this? Who else has you?"

He just looked at her, waiting for her to puzzle it out.

"Wait..." she started, "you're not saying...that I'm the one that goes back? That's going to have a direct affect on my own timeline, I can't do that can I?"

"Time is so complex, and it's really quite difficult to explain in terms you can understand. You can cross your own timeline, and being a Time Lady the rules are a little different for you. Do you understand the concepts of fixed points?"

"Yes, it's something in history that has to happen, an event that can't be altered. But how is this a fixed point, I thought it had to be written to become fixed?"

"Well that's one way...it's so much more complicated than that. Think, Miss, who else could have driven the TARDIS, you know its never responded to anyone other than your family, and best to you. Why do you think that is?"

JJ looked at him with tears in her eyes, "I don't know."

"Think," he said, "what's happening right now?"

"We're talking..."

"In your mind. We have a psychic connection now, and a psychic connection with a TARDIS is something that never goes away. It is also something that is built up over years of being linked. You know even as a child you and that TARDIS were incredibly bonded; it's because you had already been connected for years."

"But..." she stammered "how do I stay with you? You said it yourself, I grow up with you, two of myself being inside of you would create a paradox wouldn't it?"

"Not necessarily, not if I keep you here." He sighed as he stood and walked to her in her chair; she was gripping her teacup with white knuckles as the realization of the situation sunk in. He knelt down and gently took her hands in his and looked into her eyes. "Miss, it's your choice. As we speak I am growing the interior of myself that you are familiar with, building myself from your memories. Once I'm finished, I can take you back to where we left moments ago. But know the risks. If we go back right now, there will be a paradox. Everything could be destroyed in a fraction of a second if we're not careful, and even if we are careful I can see the risk being too great and something drastic being triggered."

"If I don't go back," JJ said dully, "if I don't give you to my parents, I'll never be born a Time Lady. There's no other way for that to happen, right?" The TARDIS shook his head.

"No, there's no other way."

The thought crossed her mind; the idea of being human, the prospect of avoiding all of those years of humiliation and alienation from a race she didn't belong to. The romanticized theory that she would belong to a species, she could grow old and have a family of her own, maybe marry; her entire life could change to everything she always wanted with one simple decision to not give her parents a TARDIS.

But who would she be, then? without her TARDIS? All those years...all those beautiful years of traveling as a kid, seeing far off planets and alien races, all the trips. The games of hide and seek she played amongst the rooms of the TARDIS with her dad, learning to write Gallifreyan on his walls, learning to fly it. Those days where she felt utterly alone and terrified everywhere except for curled around his console...

She knew what she had to do.

"We have to go back," she started; the TARDISes face fell and he seemed disappointed, but JJ continued; "I have to give you to my parents. And I have to stay with you. There really is no choice for me, is there?" She stood up, and he stood with her, his face relaxing into a smile. Like most other people, he was roughly a head taller than her, and he looked down on her with his smiling blue eyes. "What's your plan? What happens now?" She asked shakily.

"I wake you up, you fly us back to the evening of your parents wedding and leave us in the back yard. Be sure to leave my parking brake on, but only just this once!" he warned, "you are to leave a note on the door; you don't sign it and you use a blue felt pen. As soon as the note to your parents is on my door, you have to come back and crawl inside, and I'll put you back to sleep. You'll stay here, and I'll wake you back up when we're a few minutes after we left."

"So...fifty years from now?"

The TARDIS nodded. "I'll go ahead and wake you up, then." JJ inhaled and squeezed his hands; he pulled her into a hug for comfort. "You are very brave, Miss."

"Yeah," JJ whispered. The world was slowly getting brighter; she closed her eyes and buried her head in his chest as the world faded around her.

She woke up in the same hole she had crawled into, the whole world was a very pale bright gold, and a soft humming filled her ears. Her head was resting on the bright heart of the TARDIS; she sat up, and her head was spinning and she had the worst headache she'd ever had in her life. And she was hungry. No; starving.

Just above her was a small rectangular hole just large enough for her to squeeze through; she tried to pulled herself up through it, but her muscles were incredibly fatigued and she collapsed again. It took her two more tries to finally get her out onto the floor of the TARDIS. She lay there for a moment, trying to breathe; she felt like she was covered in some thin film of goo, and her ears were ringing loudly. She dragged herself to the console and pulled herself to a standing position and looked about the TARDIS. It looked just like the TARDIS she had grown up with, bronze and shining, except it looked and smelled new, and the walls didn't have any Gallifreyan.

She blinked forcefully, trying to make her eyes focus, but everything was bright and hazy. She began flipping switches and knobs and plugging in dates. Once the TARDIS was set on his course, she noticed sitting on the console a white piece of paper, some tape and a blue felt tip pen next to a pair of TARDIS keys. She grabbed the pen and tried to channel her focus on writing; what do you write to your parents on the night they get married?

Congratulations you two,  
Enjoy the TARDIS, have fun.

"There..." she whispered hoarsely "that should do it." Then as an afterthought,

PS clean the sheets.

She shuddered as finished the note, then collapsed onto the floor. Dear God was she starving, but she barely has the energy to sit up, let alone walk up the stairs to the kitchen. "If this is what regenerating feels like," she whispered breathlessly, "I don't think I want to make it a habit." Her head rolled to the right and she saw a dinner tray with a small spread on it; some soup, a grilled cheese, a serving of chips and hot tea. She pulled herself over and devoured the meal, then lay down on the floor.

The TARDIS began beeping that they were nearing their destination. She sat up and peeked over the edge of the console; her muscles were beginning to function a bit better by now; and she pulled herself up to begin preparing for landing. She programmed the chameleon circuit to look like the door her parents had described, then she made sure to flip the parking brake on; suddenly there was a horrid rhythmic screeching sound coming from inside the TARDIS. "How did they stand this?" She shouted. With a soft "boom" noise, the TARDIS landed. JJ grabbed the note, tape and keys and ran outside.

It was strange, being home, but not being home at the same time. She heard excited voices coming from the other side of the house, one she recognized as Grandma Jackie. She knew she didn't have much time. She quickly taped the note to the door and ran back inside, closing the door behind her; all of her mess had been cleaned up and everything was in perfect order. She heard voices from outside the door,

"What is it, a door? I thought the chameleon circuit was broken, he couldn't change it to somethin' else?"

"Well maybe it's not his TARDIS."

"Are there others?"

"Oh yeah, his was actually a really old model...there's dozens of different TARDISes in the universe...but not in our universe, where did you come from, eh?"

She heard the door click as they tried to open it; she ran back to her little hole and climbed in, pulling the cover over after her. She let a crack just big enough to see out as the door opened.

In walked her parents, 50 years younger, her father first, still in half of his tuxedo and jeans and trainers, her mother behind him in a flowing spring dress and barefoot, her hair still up from the wedding. JJ couldn't help but think how beautiful and radiant she looked, and it made her miss her mother. She tried to staple this picture of them in her mind; she knew what they were like in her time, and she loved them...but this is how she wanted to remember them.

Her father walked slowly through the control room, cautiously examining things, her mother just a few paces behind watching with excitement.

"No, definitely not his TARDIS..." her father muttered, "where did you come from, eh? Who sent you?"

"Maybe the Doctor sent it? Sent us our own?"

"Yeah, that's about the only person that would...except it doesn't make sense, why send us a fully grown TARDIS when he left us with one to grow? Because this one is brand spanking new; I'd guess it finished growing, spent a good 2 years knocking about the time vortex then came here."

"It's not going to, like, steal us or blow up or somethin' is it?"

"No..." he said, "I don't see any kind of programming in here at all, certainly not anything that's going to harm us, I think that someone out there is just genuinely being nice and somehow had a TARDIS."

Suddenly her grandmother came bursting in the door, "Oi, what's this then? Is he back? Why does it look wrong? I swear, if he comes back for ya on your wedding night I'ma kill 'im!" She said as she stood behind her mom.

"No, mum, I don't think the Doctor's here; this is a different TARDIS, we don't know who's it is."

"Ours!" Her father exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah but, we can't just accept it..." Rose started, until she saw how serious John was, "...can we?"

"Well, I mean, lonely little newborn TARDIS, no one to claim it, ought go have someone experienced to show him the ropes, and who better in this universe than us, right?" He walked to Rose and put his arms around her; she was grinning ecstatically.

"Oh, no!" Jackie exclaimed, "You two aren't going to go bouncin' around time and space again are you? What happened to 'settle down, get married, pretty little desk job at Torchwood?'"

"Mum," Rose asked as she led her mother out of the TARDIS, "do either of us look like we're cut out for desk jobs?"

Jackie grinned, and hugged Rose tightly, "So no Italy, then?"

John came up behind Rose and pulled something out of his jacket, presumably plane tickets, and handed it to Jackie; "Not for us, but since the plane tickets and hotels are bought and such..."

Jackie looked shocked, then extremely pleased, "Oi, you two have fun in your time machine, be safe, and don't bring home any strays. Aliens. Or anything scary." She turned and headed back to the house calling for Pete.

John shut the door of the TARDIS and pulled Rose inside. They stood holding hands and staring into each other's eyes for a moment, then John tore away and began spinning around the TARDIS console, setting things into motion. "So! How about Giornea? Lovely place, rainforests, romantic walks, tree-top camping, bugs the size of your head?"

"Perfect!" Rose shouted as she jumped up next to him. He flipped one last switch, and looked at her with all the love and excitement in the world. He slowly walked back towards her until they were just a foot apart.

"Allons-y!" He whispered as he reached for her hands. JJ could feel a gentle backwards pull that she could only assume was the TARDIS telling her it was nap time. As she allowed the trap to close, she saw John pull Rose in for a long, passionate kiss, and then JJ's world faded back to white.

JJ woke up in her bedroom, sitting up in her bed. Her TARDIS was sitting at the end of her bed, watching her, concerned. The world was grey; it was raining outside, and everything smelled of petrichor and must; she felt cold.

"What happened?" She demanded, "It was so bright earlier, why have you made this place feel sad?"

The TARDIS looked at her sympathetically, "It's not entirely my decision what the mood of this world is, in fact, it's not much my decision at all; I'm not really capable of emotion, most of what I emote is either learned or directly mirrored from you."

"Two years?" She asked, her eyes beginning to well with tears, "had I been asleep two years before that happened?"

"Yes. Time is going to pass faster here, if you'd like it to. I can make it seem like it's only a matter of minutes from now until when I wake you next if you'd like."

JJ stared to cry, "They looked so young then," she whispered. She thought of what her parents had been like when she left; old, her mother so, so sick.

Both so close to death it may be the next hand they shake.

The tears rolled down her cheeks as she recalled the last conversation she had with her mother; it had been an argument. They had fought, because she was never around to see them; it had been her fault. And now she wanted nothing more than to be with them again.

There was a clap of thunder outside as it began to rain harder; the TARDIS pulled himself closer to JJ and wrapped her into a hug and stroked her hair.


	7. Chapter 7

The Doctor and Rose sat by JJ's bed, watching her sleep. It was nearly midnight, and she was still unconscious. Rose stroked her hand, staring distantly across the room at one of JJ's hand drawn star charts.

Mathilda walked into the room carrying a cool cloth and placed it on JJ's forehead.

"Rose..." The Doctor whispered, "you should get some sleep..."

"I can't leave her," she whispered back.

"Mathilda and I will stay with her. You have a big day tomorrow, you need rest."

Rose squeezed JJ's hand as John walked into the room; he had been downstairs taking calls from people responding to the email. He walked behind Rose and put his hands on her shoulders. Everyone stood in silence for a moment, watching JJ.

"Everyone is on board for tomorrow, there's almost two dozen of us going." John said.

Rose sat silently; the Doctor watched them, not quite sure of what to do.

"We should get to bed sweetheart," John said gently.

"I'll watch Miss JJ, ma'am, I'll wake you if anything changes, I promise," Mathilda offered. when Rose didn't move, she added gently, "You need rest, ma'am."

Rose watched JJ another moment, then reluctantly nodded. John helped her up and led her from the room, leaving Mathilda and the Doctor alone. As he left, he cast a worried look to the Doctor, who nodded, silently agreeing that he'd keep her safe.

Mathilda walked to JJ's bedside and dabbed her forehead with the cloth, trying to cool her fever.

"Oh, little Miss," she cooed, "what have you gotten yourself into this time?"

The Doctor watched another moment in silence, then asked "Would you mind if I went downstairs for a moment? I want to look at the TARDIS, see if there's something there that can give us some kind of clue as to what happened to her."

"Aye, sir. You think she'll be okay?"

He watched a moment, then walked up and checked her pulse and her fever. He pulled out his screwdriver and scanned her carefully. "Mathilda," he said quietly, "there's nothing wrong with her. Aside from the fever, she's completely fine. She's just...asleep." He sighed, "I'm going to go have a look at the TARDIS, I'll be back."

He disappeared from the room and moved quietly down the stairs to the basement. He inspected the space where the old TARDIS had been, but there were no real clues as to where it had gone; it simply vanished, took off. He turned to the door on the wall and inspected it; it was a dark brown wood, with a massive detailed cast-iron pull handle, door knocker and decorations that made it look almost midieval. He inspected the detail work, hoping there would be something giving away its planet or race of origin.

There was some sort of inscription just under the door knocker; so small he could barely read it, but it was definitely some sort of written language. He turned and ran back upstairs through the kitchen and up the front staircase to JJ's room, and poked his head in the door. "Magnifying glass?" he asked.

"In the study, drawer to the right of the desktop computer in the back," she replied, confused. The Doctor disappeared and returned to the study, and dug through the drawer in the desk. He found what he was looking for, and excitedly pulled it from the drawer; as he did so, he accidentally knocked some mail and documents to the floor. He bumbled to collect them and replace them, when he noticed that several of the papers were medical documents, all of which had a Torchwood Hospital stamp in the upper right hand corner. He held them for a moment, conflicted; he didn't want to pry and be nosy...

"I know mum is sick and just isn't telling me, I can feel it," JJ had said. He had felt it too, and tried to ignore it, but there was no hiding that something was very wrong with Rose.

His concern and curiosity got the better of him, and he sat in the chair and began sifting through the documents.

Only about half of them were recent, from the last year, and it wasn't pretty. "Unexplained abdominal pain but clean ultrasounds and scans, memory loss, muscular deterioration, occasional seizures and hallucinations, oh Rose..." He whispered, his eyes watering, "what's happened to you?" He searched through the documents; all tests were inconclusive, nothing showed up as being a trigger. It just seemed as though she was slowly being destroyed by some invisible force. Finally there was a letter with the Torchwood Hospital stamp, dated for mid February.

"Dear Mr. Smith," he mumbled quickly,

"We regret to inform you that after vigorous testing and the combined best efforts of the Torchwood medical staff, we must surmise a cause for your wife's degenerative condition. After a review from our medical panel and in depth study of your wife's test results and marks over the past year, we have reached a conclusion. Based on the inconsistencies and rarities of the combination of symptoms that Mrs. Smith is exhibiting and the correlation between these symptoms and exceptionally high fluctuations of energy and neuronal activity that we have recorded, we conclude that the degenerative affects are a result of leftover energy from the event known as 'Bad-" he took in a sharp breath; he wasn't entierly sure he wanted to finish reading the letter, "the event known as 'Bad Wolf' attacking her already naturally weakened physiology.

Based on our findings, we regret to inform you that Mrs. Smith's estimated remaining life span from today's date is approximately 6 months to a-" his hand flew to his mouth as the tears began to flow. "No..." he whispered. His eyes darted up to the top of the page at the date; February 18th 2059. He turned to the monitor and violently shook the mouse to wake it, and checked the date; 1:09am, August 12th, 2059. Six months.

He leaned back in the office chair and ran his fingers helplessly through his hair. "Oh, Rose..." he whispered mournfully as tears streamed down his face. He closed his eyes, trying to unsee what he had just read, and instead his mind played back that day; the day she had become the Bad Wolf; the day she saved his life. And now...now that moment was slowly and painfully killing her.

"Will there ever be a day that one of them doesn't die for me?" He whispered helplessly.

He looked up and saw on the desk a photo in a frame of a young Rose and John, holding a giggling little girl with big, amber-brown wondering eyes, and each kissing her on the cheek. They were on a picnic blanket under a tree in a park somewhere obviously not Earth, judging by the blue people in the background. JJ looked about 5 or 6 so she was probably around 11 at the time, and she was holding a drawing of her, her parents and Mathilda, and a floating door, presumably their TARDIS.

The photo made him sad; it was a snapshot of a life he could never have. But also, as he looked at it, at how happy everyone was, he realized that despite the sickness, Rose had lived a good life; a fantastic life. She wasn't dying young. She was dying old, and happy, with her family.

He sighed brokenly and grabbed at the magnifying glass, and set the papers back down on the desk in a neat pile. He stood up and walked slowly from the room back towards the basement, when something occurred to him.

He spun around and ran back to the study, and grabbed up the photo frame, staring at it intently. His eyes grew wide, and he ran back up the stairs to JJ's room, magnifying glass and photo in hand.

"Mathilda!" He said loudly; she shushed him angrily.

"Doctor, it's nearly two in the morning! You'll be having the whole house up again if you're not quiet!"

"I'm sorry, Mathilda, but this is important. The Professor...does he ever wear a bow tie?"

Mathilda was confused and still a bit put off by his noise level, "No, the Professor can't stand the feel of a bow tie around his neck; now a regular tie he wears almost every day..."

"No no no, bow tie, like this," he wiggled his own red bow tie, "he never ever wears them?"

"Only time I've ever seen him wear one is a white one in his wedding photos," she replied.

"Then why," he asked showing her the photo, "did Miss JJ draw him wearing a red one in her picture as a child?"

"I...I don't know..." Mathilda stammered.

The Doctor stared at JJ, slightly disappointed the she was still asleep and couldn't answer his question. It didn't sit right. "If she wakes up and I'm not here I want you to call for me straightaway, is that understood?"

Mathilda nodded tiredly. The Doctor turned from the room and went back downstairs to the basement, grabbing a flashlight from the kitchen and leaving the photo on the table on his way. He knelt in front of the TARDIS and gave it a once over under the magnifying glass. Then he pulled out a pair of brown reading glasses from his coat pocket; he stared at them a moment, his face darkened ever so slightly, and the room felt as if just a little bit of life had been sucked from it. He blinked distantly for a moment, then slid them over his nose and attempted to inspect the writing.

At first glance, the writing looked like a strange version of Old High Gallifreyan. But when he tried to read it, it was largely gibberish. Only a few words seemed to actually translate to something;

Τη9πέ ψιγγ βε θπέατ ω2λ2γ2ζατίον ργ7ν9τ (planet) Θ7γγ2ξπ9υ. Παωέ ω7γγ9φ Τιμέ (Time) Γοπφ ψ2γγ φψ9γγ (dwell) τη9πέ, ψ2γγ ψ7γκ 7μ5νθ στ7πς σ2νθ ψ2τη Τιμέ (Time) 2τσ9γξ. Β8τ ξ2πστ ω5μές Φαπκν9σς (Darkness), ψη2ωη φεσττους βεξοπέ ξ2πστ βπέατη.

Τιμέ (Time) θπανυς 8ς μ2π7ωγέ; σαλίοπ, ψη5 φεσττόυς φαπκν9σς (Darkness). Τηέ Τέαωηέπ; Τηέ Σ8ρργ7ντέπ; ωομες παφίαντ ψηιτέ, ψ2τη2ν ψηομ τψο ηέαπτς βέατ. Τηέ Φ5ωτοπ ψ2τη Τηέ Τέαωηέπ σαλε Θ7γγ2ξπ9υ, Τιμέ (Time), πεστοπέ β7γ7νωέ 2ν Δν2λέπσέ.

"Planet, time, dwell, darkness," he mumbled. He slid the glasses back off and jogged back upstairs, grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, and jogged back downstairs. He carefully copied down the rest of the writing, and took it back upstairs to the dining room, flipping on a little light. He slid the glasses back on and began trying to decipher it.

* * *

His head shot up from the table; it was still dark, and the table was covered in sheets of paper with the strange language scrawled across it, with theories drawn up and scratched out. He must have fallen asleep. He ran his fingers through his hair, and sighed tiredly...then suddenly became aware of the feeling of being watched. He turned in his chair and saw two figures; one, a tall thin white man in a white shirt that was nearly completely hidden by shadows, and a tall muscular African American woman standing in the back corner of the dining room. Her hair was braided in many tiny braids tight on her head, and fell down her back in a contained waterfall, trailing nearly the whole way down her back. She was wearing dark leather, and he couldn't tell through the shadows, but it looked like a weapon was strapped to her thigh. Her dark eyes glinted in the light of the little lamp he had lit.

"You must listen to me," she said in a deep, rich voice.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"A dream; nothing more. But hear me. Stand by the girl. Dark times are coming. I cannot tell you when or where or why, but they are coming, and soon. You must hold her hand. Promise me you will hold her hand."

"What...?" he asked groggily, not entirely sure he wasn't still sleeping.

"PROMISE me, promise you will hold her hand!" the strange woman repeated forcefully.

"Who? Who's hand? What am I promising?" He asked, strangely still dazed.

"Just promise," she begged. There was a slight pleading tone in her voice now.

"Alright...I...I promise."

"Say it!"

"I...I promise to hold her hand." The woman smiled sadly. "What am I holding her hand for? Who's hand?"

"You will know," the woman answered; they seemed to be fading. "Winter is coming; in time, all the flowers must wither and-"

* * *

His head shot up from the table; it was morning, and the table was covered in sheets of paper with the strange language scrawled across it, with theories drawn up and scratched out. He must have fallen asleep. He ran his fingers through his hair, and sighed tiredly...then suddenly became aware of the feeling of being watched. He turned in his chair and saw John leaning in the doorway between the dining room and the hallway, dressed for the day with a cup of coffee in hand, half-smirking.

"Good morning, sunshine," he said comically.

"Hello," the Doctor mumbled. He stood stiffly from his chair and stretched. "I had the strangest dream...there was a woman, and a man in your dining room just there," he reached from his stretch and pointed, then relaxed. Then he remembered everything he had been doing prior to falling asleep; the indecipherable message on the TARDIS, reading the medical papers...he shot a look to John, who gave a knowing look. He took a deep breath and walked towards the Doctor and took a chair opposite his as the Doctor sat back down.

"Does JJ know," the Doctor whispered; John reluctantly shook his head.

"Rose wanted to tell her in person. And she wanted her coming home to be her own choice, not an obligation because her mum is sick. She's been pretty good the past few weeks, though..." his voice trailed off, and he began to intently inspect the few coffee grounds floating in his coffee. Suddenly the men heard slow footsteps coming down the stairs; both men made eye contact for a moment, and the Doctor saw a single moment of sorrow flash in John's eyes before he got up and walked toward the stairs.

"Professor?"

"Yes?" he asked as he turned.

"I'll keep an eye on JJ today if you want to let Mathilda rest."

John raised an eyebrow quizzically, then nodded and continued to the stairs. "Rose, dear, do you need help?"

"No, no I'm fine..." she replied slightly attitudinally. Several moments later she and John were both just outside the dining room door in the front hall, dressed and ready to march to Torchwood.

The Doctor stood and walked to the hallway to say goodbye, as Mathilda came down the stairs. John looked to her expectant and hopeful; she shook her head sadly, JJ hadn't woken.

She came down and hugged John and Rose goodbye, "Now you two good luck, be safe, I'll call you if anything changes."

"Thank you Mathilda; why don't you take off the day, rest. I'm sure there's enough leftovers for dinner tonight that we can manage." John smiled and squeezed Mathilda's shoulder. She looked between John and the Doctor, then let a smile of relief.

"We'll see you tonight then?" She asked.

John nodded, "This shouldn't take too terribly long; to set them straight; not with the crew we've got." He smiled confidently and put his arm around Rose.

Something was off with her; her eyes were slightly cloudy and distant, and she didn't seemed to focus on anything in particular. The Doctor watched her, resisting the urge to turn away and cry. He did not want to see any of his friends like this; least of all Rose.

John attempted to get her attention, "Ready to go, love?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, off to Torchwood..." She whispered. John shook his head as he led her to the door to where a taxi was waiting for them. The Doctor and Mathilda waved goodbye and shut the door as John helped Rose into the taxi and told the driver their destination.

They were several minutes down the road, when suddenly Rose exclaimed "John! JJ is sick!"

"Yes she is," he said gently, "but the Doctor is watching her. Do you what to go back?"

"No, it's alright...I just...I didn't check on her before I left."

John smiled, "I'm sure she'll be fine, dear. They'll call us if anything happens."

"Yeah..." she whispered as she stared out of the window. "It's just...I didn't get to say goodbye."

The Doctor closed the door as Mathilda let out an exhausted sigh of relief. "Doctor if its alright with you, I'm going to go sleep now." He nodded, and she disappeared to her bedroom. He stood there another moment as he listened to the cab drive away, then went bank to the dining room.

The sketches of the language was still scattered all across the table; he scooped them up, trying to organize them, but there was no real way of solving this issue; it was gibberish. He sat in the chair and rested his head on his hand, trying to forget the Rose he had just seen; so broken and-

"DOCTOR!"

There came a scream from upstairs; he jumped up instantly and he ran for the staircase, nearly bumping into Mathilda, who was white as a ghost. "JJ?" She asked; they both took off up the staircase to JJ's room where she was sitting up in bed, her knees to her chin and her eyes wide as the moon, staring into get closet.

"JJ what's wrong, what did you see?" The Doctor asked as he knelt in front of her on her bed.

"There...in my closet..." she pointed and then looked at the Doctor terrified, "there was a girl in my closet!"

* * *

Author's Challenge on Gallifreyan

The Old High Gallifreyan I use in this chapter is not directly canon; mostly because there is no official alphabet released that I could find or type. I looked up what was known about it, and the version I decided to base mine from said it was comprised of Greek-like letters and numbers and mathematical symbols. As I'm writing my entire story on my iPhone, I have access to the various keyboards, so I made my own version of an Old High Gallifreyan alphabet based on the English alphabet based on the Greek keyboard. As the story goes, I plan on continuing to write in this alphabet, but I'm not going to tell you what the cipher is. My challenge to you, readers, in hopes to get some interaction from you guys; If you think you crack the code and translate the paragraphs before I reveal it, message me or leave a review saying what you think it is. Also, one legitimate review per chapter with actual thoughts/suggestions/criticisms will warrant translation of one word, letter, or revealing a grammatical rule. If someone figures it out...I'll devise some kind of reward. Let me know what you think would be sufficient. Thanks for playing!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

There were a total of 21 Torchwood members that were gathered in the back half of the tiny coffee shop. Most of then were retirees; old-timers that had been around since the new Torchwood had been started. They all listened intently as John and Rose explained the situation.

"As most of you know, Torchwood has been performing experiments in an attempt to create a Dalek. Most of us remember, or at least heard stories, about Daleks and what they do. Serena Gordon thinks there's a way to take then and make them into soldiers; but there's not, there's just no way, they are too dangerous." John explained.

"We're going to go in as a group today and confront Serena and see to it the Dalek is destroyed. The only issue is that they're growing it in one of our friends; most of you know Chrissie Bøyum, Emelia's wife; that's who they're using as an incubator, and it's killing her."

"How do we know for sure that this is true?" asked one of the women. Lisa Sarafin had been a Torchwood intelligence operative in charge of security desk work when new aliens were brought in.

"JJ saw it, Serena told her what was going on, and she came straight to us. We all know Chrissie has been sick for nearly a year now, with no explanations; JJ had suspected Torchwood had done something to her but didn't have it figured out until recently."

"JJ's back?" asked one of the younger men; Thomas Scola was in his early 50s. Despite his age he was still an active Torchwood field agent, and had come with his parents, Lily and Evan, who had retired nearly a decade ago. He wasn't young, but had aged into the charming salt-and-peppered gentleman that ladies still fell in love with. "Why isn't she here?"

"She is..." John said slowly, "...she's not feeling well."

The crowd grew stale; "did Torchwood do something to her?" Asked Kenneth Kramer; he had been one of the nurses that helped get JJ out of Torchwood when they thought it was in the universe's best interest to experiment on a child.

"We...aren't really sure what happened," John said, "it's complicated. She's asleep at home right now, Mathilda is watching her...and" he tossed around the idea of telling them who else was there, "we called a doctor; he's watching her. She's safe now."

"How do we know they didn't stick one of these things inside her?" Thomas asked edgily.

John looked to Rose; they hadn't considered that. The Doctor did say she had aged 50 years; there was no telling where she had been or what happened in that time.

"I'm sure the Doctor would have found something..." Rose said hesitantly.

"And there's nothing we can do for her right now, we need to focus on this Dalek," interrupted an old Indian woman; Wendy Kavali had been a field agent in her day, and like some agents her work had caused her to become bitter and slightly crass in emotional situations. She stood from her booth and walked next to where John, "what's your plan? They must know we're coming, they're not going to let us in."

"Oh, we'll let ourselves in," John answered. There was a murmur of confusion; all retirees lost access to the building, as did field agents on assignment for security purposes; no one in the group could get them past the doors.

"Most of you remember Dr. Tylor Weaver, Torchwood historian, former head of weapons development," Rose started, "he then retired to head of security. We talked to him last night, and this morning he reinstated all of our handprints for building access."

"To my knowledge he also submitted his official resignation today," John added.

"Alright," Wendy said, "good plan. We walk in, go straight to Serena, and ask her to destroy the Dalek? And we just expect her to listen to us?"

"If she doesn't, between us we have enough pull and respect in the company to get someone to listen, or simply do it ourselves." Lisa answered.

"You're absolutely certain there is no way this creature can be reasoned with, or converted to good?" Kenneth asked.

"Ken, I have alwaysadmired your respect of all life, but this is a Dalek. The best thing we can do for it, is to kill it. There is no good in it...that's what makes it Dalek."

* * *

The Doctor scanned the closet as Mathilda inspected JJ.

"I really did see her; there was a girl, she had short red hair and was in a bathrobe. She was only there for a second, but she was there, I swear!" Her voice was slightly slurred and still gritty, like she had sand in her throat.

"Now, Miss, you've been sick. Your fever's not quite gone, you could just be seeing things..."

"No!" She said fiercely, "she was there! She was real! I will not have you telling me I'm having hallucinations!"

"Yes, she was," the Doctor said. He snapped his screwdriver closed and turned from the closet. "You said you only saw her for a second, what happened?"

"Well, I woke up, and saw I was in my room; I sat up, and she was standing in my closet, facing away from me, in a blue bathrobe. I said 'Hey!', she turned around, got this shocked expression and instantly disappeared, like a ghost or something."

"Well, she was here. There's a highly concentrated level of energy right here where JJ said she was standing. It's as if something sent her here without her knowledge and then pulled her back."

"So, like teleportation?"

"No...well, yes," he said when Mathilda and JJ looked confused, "not really but if it makes you feel any better than sure." He walked to JJ and scanned her, "see, all better. Want to give your parents a call, let them know you're alright?"

"Where are they? How long have I been asleep?" she asked. The Doctor and Mathilda looked to each other uncomfortably.

"JJ, what's the last thing you remember?" The Doctor asked gently.

"I...was going to do laundry..." she studied the quilt on her bed, as if looking for answers. Something was missing. "I had a weird dream..."

Suddenly, it all hit her at once; climbing into the TARDIS, giving it to her parents, and 50 years of watching herself grow up. She shrieked and grabbed her temple as everything smacked her consciousness like a ton of bricks. Then she looked up to the Doctor and her eyes met his. "I did it," she said.

"What?"

"I gave it to them, I gave them the TARDIS, it was mine...my TARDIS, he told me to fly him back to them..."

"Who told you to?" Mathilda asked.

"My TARDIS! Weren't you listening?" She shouted angrily. Suddenly she let out a single burst of laughed, then looked to the Doctor, alarmed. "I...my brain..feels funny. It hurts." She winced, and forcefully combed her fingers through her long hair, "My TARDIS...told me to tell you that I transferred a regeneration worth of energy to him...he said that you'd take care of me."

The Doctor's eyes grew wide, "JJ, have you ever regenerated before?"

She looked back into his green eyes; suddenly her face screwed up; she shook her head "no..." and then she began to cry uncontrollably.

"Oh dear..." He wrapped her in a hug and pulled her close, "oh dear oh dear, this is going to be an interesting experience for you then, Oi, Mathilda, fetch her some tea please."

"And grilled cheese!" Piped JJ through tears, "and mayonnaise! Lots of it..." Mathilda and the Doctor looked at her quizzically, "please?" She squeaked.

Mathilda gave the Doctor a look that said she had given up on trying to understand the situation, and then disappeared to the kitchen.

JJ curled up into his lap and began crying hysterically "what's happening?" She asked.

"Well...regeneration's a tricky business," he explained, "it's draining. And your first time usually isn't easy...it's like learning to swim. The first time you do it, it's best if you're in a shallow pool with your dad holding you up and you have help if you get scared...well, I'm sure without meaning to, it's as if your first time ever swimming your TARDIS threw you into the middle of the ocean in the middle of a hurricane with the closest rescue ship 20 miles away. You learned, but the hard way."

"But...I didn't regenerate...I mean, I look the same."

"You still expelled and used that energy. Your body is probably more exhausted than you're ever going to feel again. But! Easy fix, lots of rest and some nutrient replacing food," JJ looked as if she was going to object, "Ah-ah! Doctor's orders." She rolled her eyes and gently pulled away so she was sitting up on her own. She wiped the tears and snot from her face with an old tshirt.

"So, how long have I been gone?"

"Well, the physical you; about 50 years. But I only imagine a few minutes passed in our timeline between you and the TARDIS disappearing and you waking back up."

"So, it's just the next day? Where are mum and dad, have they gone to Torchwood already?"

"They just left about half an hour ago."

JJ's eyes became saucers, "I have to go!" She swung her legs over the side of the bed and tried to jump up; the Doctor caught her as she collapsed.

"You need rest," he ordered gently.

"No, they need me there!" She objected.

"I'm sure they'll manage!" he snapped; she stopped struggling. He helped her back into bed, and she lay back against her pillow as Mathilda entered the room with the requested food. "Whole lot of good you'll do them," he teased, "can't even stand on your own. And grilled cheese with mayonnaise? They said I was strange."

"That's because fish fingers and custard is gross." JJ said as she scarfed her food.

The Doctor scoffed, "fish fingers and custard is delicious..." then he realized he never told her about his strange food quirk, "wait...how do you know I like fish fingers and custard?"

"You said it." she answered between mouthfuls.

"No, I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"When?" he asked.

"I don't know, you just did."

"No, I never said that. The only food I've talked about is chips and that was in Norway."

"Well you must have forgotten because I know I heard you say it."

"Say what?"

"You said, 'I craved fish fingers and custard last time I regenerated.'"

"'I craved fish fingers and custard last time I regenerated?' I'd never say that, that's not something I would say!"

"But you just did, sir," Mathilda interjected. He turned and looked to her, having completely forgotten she was standing in the doorway. She was holding something behind her back; she let just a bit of it show, and he saw the corner of a picture frame...then he remembered the photo of the drawing of the bow tie last night.

"JJ...eat up, and don't stand up, for god's sakes stay in bed. I've got to talk to Mathilda about something." He walked into the hallway, pulling the woman behind him. "Incorrigible child," he muttered.

Mathilda smirked nervously and handed the frame to him. He studied it again; the bow tie on the wrong man. "You should ask her, sir," she hesitated a moment before continuing. "You know what I think, sir?"

"Hmm?"

"Well," she started, "I went into the TARDIS, and that rocky stuff that was all over her? There was a path of it from a little hole under the TARDIS console, and inside that hole was a whole bunch of it, grown kind of like coral, making a little tiny cave; I think she was in there, curled right at the center."

"Curled around the heart of the TARDIS?" he repeated puzzled, as he tried to work it in his brain.

"The Professor talked about TARDISes," Mathilda continued, "all the time, he said, that the heart of the TARDIS was connected to time, that a TARDIS is alive, and knows everything; everything that has happened or will happen or could. And, sir, JJ was wrapped around it, you say for 50 years. She said she talked to it."

The Doctor looked up into Mathilda's eyes as he realized what she was saying. "Maybe, with the TARDIS, maybe it's in her brain now; maybe she knows everything, too. She might not know she knows it,"

"But it's there." He broke into an excited grin and kissed Mathilda on the forehead, "oh you, you're bloody brilliant, you are!"

She smiled and blushed, "once in awhile I figure out something clever."

"I can see why they keep you around, oh you are brilliant," he looked at the photo again, "but that still doesn't explain how she knows about bow ties as a child, this is years before she's in psychic contact with the TARDIS," he turned and went back into the room, where JJ had finished her grilled cheese and mayonnaise and was sipping her tea. "JJ, I have to ask you something." He sat on the bed next to her and showed her the photo, "remember this?"

"Yes..." She said casually, "that was one of our holidays to the 5th moon of Quorra. I wanted to see blue people because blue was my favorite color. Dad had wanted to take us to Bern to see the red skies and Firefish, but we ended up here instead. Great place for a picnic."

"Do you remember drawing that picture?"

She gave him an 'are you serious?' look. "I was 10."

"What is your father wearing in your drawing, JJ?"

She glanced at it, "a bow tie? Why...is that important?" He stared at her until she got it. "My dad doesn't wear bow ties...are you saying I drew you?"

"Try to remember, JJ, try to remember drawing that picture; why did you draw a red bow tie on your dad?"

She looked into the quilt and stared, unblinking, trying to remember; the Doctor put an encouraging hand on her shoulder. "I...I don't know," she blinked and turned to the Doctor, "I can't remember..." She drew in a sharp breath; the Doctor's face went from concern to surprise. "What?" She asked, in shock.

They were standing in a park, under a tall FauxOak tree. It felt like spring; all around them were tall and obscenely thin blue people jogging, walking strange pets that looked like a combination between a dog and a small whale, reading and the like.

"We're...on the 5th moon of Quorra." The Doctor said.

"No, we can't be," JJ said bewildered, "it was destroyed 15 years ago, ravaged by carnivores, it's a wasteland now."

"It's only a shade," a smooth American voice said. JJ and the Doctor both turned; she looked even more shocked, and the Doctor felt wary of the stranger, until JJ threw her arms around him in a hug. The stranger smiled and hugged her back.

"I thought I couldn't see you again?"

"Technically speaking, Miss, you still have yet to see me." He pulled away and smiled.

"Why are we here? I mean, how? We didn't time travel, we were in my room."

"You wanted to be here," he said.

"Excuse me," the Doctor interrupted, and the two turned to him. "What the hell is going on? JJ who is this?"

JJ beamed, "Doctor, this is my TARDIS."

The TARDIS held out his hand to the Doctor, "Pleased to meet you, Doctor."

The Doctor hesitantly shook his hand, "Likewise. Are you called anything?"

"Not yet, Miss hasn't found my title yet. But I shall have it soon, I think."

"Yes, calling you 'TARDIS' really doesn't suit you," JJ said distractedly as she scanned their surroundings. "So how are we here? We're not connected anymore, so I'm not dreaming it."

"You're right and wrong, there. We are still connected; I told you, the psychic link will never go away. But you're not dreaming this; you are revisiting a place on your own time stream; you were trying to remember something, so hard you wished you could actually be here. And what always happens when you're with me and you wish to be somewhere?"

"We always go where I want..." she answered, "if we're where I want to be, then that means..." she began jogging down the little hill and following the walking path towards the pond.

The Doctor went to follow her, and the TARDIS gently grabbed his jacket by the arm. "What are you doing, where is she going?" he snapped; his impression of this TARDIS thus far was not a good one. Suddenly she took off into an excited run.

"She has to give me my title," the TARDIS said quietly, glowing with excitement, as if about to receive a present he had peeked at Christmas Eve.

"Doctor, Simon," she called, "come on!"

"And there it is," he whispered, beaming. He released the Doctor's jacket and they both jogged after her.

She glanced to her TARDIS as they caught up with her, "I'm sorry," she blushed, "I don't know why I called you Simon...well, I do, but you're not-."

"It's alright, Miss," he interrupted, "I like it, really I do."

"Really?" she squeaked, "Do you...want it to be your name, then?"

The TARDIS; Simon; nodded energetically, "Yes please, it's a fantastic title."

"Well alright, Simon," she grinned, "and Doctor, I have a question. If I go talk to that little girl, will there be a problem?" She pointed to the pond, where a little brown haired girl was playing in the water.

The Doctor furrowed his brow as he recognized 10-year old JJ, "It's risky...it could cause a paradox, the universe could explode-"

"No," Simon interrupted simply. Both JJ and the Doctor looked at him, the Doctor slightly miffed at being interrupted. "If there is a certain statistical probability of a paradox, we go back to where we came from. We're traveling on JJ's own timeline, it's dangerous enough, so I have failsafes in place to ensure the 'universe won't explode,' as you say." He flashed a coy; and slightly sarcastic; smile at the Doctor.

"Alright, let's go, then," JJ said.

"You two may go, but she can't see me; you never saw me as a child."

"Oh come on," she tried to pull Simon along, "I didn't see me as a child either; we're technically rewriting time."

Simon smiled and pulled her hands from his shirt, shaking his head 'no.' "Go ahead, miss, I'll wait here."

JJ huffed, spun on her heel and took a few steps towards the pond; the Doctor cast a glance back at Simon, then followed JJ. They stopped a few short feet away from the girl, who was playing in the water.

"What do I say?" JJ whispered.

"What were you called then?" He asked her.

"Jackie Jane."

The Doctor walked so she was beside her a few feet away, crouched down, and whispered, "Jackie Jane?"

The girl's head perked up, and she made eye contact with The Doctor. "Daddy?" Then she turned to look at JJ.

The world changed; they were back in JJ's room, sitting on her bed holding the photo, exactly as they had left.

"What happened?" JJ demanded, "Why are we back? Where's Simon?"

"Paradox," the Doctor said distantly.

"He said it was safe, though! Why are we back?"

"He said if a paradox were about to occur, we'd all return. Apparently you seeing yourself would have created a paradox." He looked up at JJ, then jumped up from the bed. "You know what this means?"

"It was you," she said, as things fell into place, "I saw you, but I was too young to tell the difference between you and dad; I thought you were my dad, which is why I drew the bow tie!"

He began to pace excitedly, "And you don't remember seeing yourself because your TARDIS zapped us back the instant before you would have seen yourself."

"So, I acknowledge my own existence, and it's over?" She asked.

"That must be how the game works," he replied, then suddenly got nose to nose with her and peered into her eyes, "now the question is, how did you do that?"

"I...I don't know..." She said awkwardly, wanting to pull away, "I've always been able to do it, in the TARDIS, think where I wanted to go, and we just went. Drove Dad mad, it did."

"Yes, but how..." He hesitantly tapped her temple, as if looking for an on switch.

"I don't know..." She said slowly.

"Well," he stood quickly, "lets go talk to your boyfriend, then."

"Oi, he's not my boyfriend!" She shouted as she carefully stood and made for her closet. She picked out a forest green babydoll tshirt and boot cut jeans, and grabbed a soft black leather jacket.

"Couldn't tell by the way you were hanging all over him."

"Out!" she commanded; he rolled his eyes and stood just outside the door.

"I don't like that boy...he makes me want to...oh, I don't know, clean a shot gun or something."

"Hey!" She shoured as she came out of her room, completely dressed and in a pair of tall tan boots.. "Listen, fish-fingers man, I was in stasis for 50 years; 50 years that I could have spent alone in the dark; unconscious! But I didn't. I spent 50 years with him. He gave me everything he could!"

"He forcibly stole a regeneration from you! That could have killed you, do you realize that? Wonderful first date, I suppose, if you're into that sort of thing." He began slowly helping her to the stairs.

"Who exactly do you think you are? He knows me better than probably anyone in the universe ever will, and is the closest friend I'm ever going to know. I will not have you insulting him! Because when you leave, and you will, and my parents die, and Mathilda is gone, he is going to be all I have. So bugger off and leave me to my business." With that, she grasped the railing and began making her way down the stairs; just then the doorbell rang.

"I've got it, Mathilda!" JJ called; she shuffled to the door, taking in a few deep, exhausted breaths. She peered through the peep-hole, then gasped.

She opened the door, and in rolled a little old man in an electric wheelchair. "Dr. Weaver!" JJ exclaimed. She reached down and wrapped the old man in a warm hug. He was holding a small holographic information device in his free hand, controlling his chair with the other.

"JJ!" He echoed her surprise as he wrapped an old arm around her, "what in heaven's name are you doing up, your parents said you were unconscious!"

"I'm fine, now," she smiled. "A little moody and very tired, but otherwise alright. The Doctor's been taking care of me, it's been SORT OF nice having another Time Lord around." She cast a sarcastic glance behind her to the Doctor.

Dr. Weaver's old wrinkled face grew dark, "THE Doctor?" He eyed up the man in suspenders suspiciously.

"Yes, didn't my parents tell you?" JJ asked.

"They told us you were unconscious at home and were with A doctor, but they didn't say it was him...I was just on my way to check on you, we thought they had gotten to you too..."

"What do you mean, "me too"? "Me too" what, what's happened?" she asked concerned as she reached behind him to close the door..

Dr. Weaver's face was strangely morose:, and he cast a worried glanced to the Doctor, then back to JJ, "JJ, come over here," he said as he wheeled towards the dining room, "I've got this file here, it explain everything."

JJ followed the old man to the dining room, and perched on the arm of one of the dining room chairs, taking the file and beginning to read. Quickly her expressions slid from casually happy go-lucky to morbid. "Oh my god...are you sure?" She asked.

"I'm afraid so. I've been keeping tabs on their movements, ever since you emailed me about Chrissie; that file is all the information I compiled."

"What's going on, JJ?" The Doctor asked; JJ handed him the file.

"It's worse than we thought...so so much worse.. " She muttered; he gasped as he realized what she meant. He looked up at JJ, and her eyes were steel.

"We have to go to Torchwood now." He said.

JJ nodded, "Dr. Weaver, thank you for your help, but please stay here. This is going to get messy, and quickly; there's no need for you be further involved. Did they know what they were going up against?"

"No...I don't think so..." Dr. Weaver said reluctantly, "I sent an email to your father with this information but I never got confirmation that he read it."

JJ's face went white, and she stood from the chair. "Doctor," she said,

"To the batmobile?" He asked.

"Allons-y!"

They both took off to the basement.


	9. Chapter 9

"Wait!" called Dr. Weaver, "you can't just walk in there!"

"My parents did, why can't we?" JJ said as she headed for the basement door.

"Torchwood has tech that will destroy your TARDIS JJ, if you try to land in there, you'll be blown to bits." JJ stopped and face him, he sighed tiredly in his electronic chair. "Think. You need a plan."

JJ looked at the Doctor imploringly. "We have to get in."

"Listen to me," Dr. Weaver begged, "when I left, I gave your parents full security access; you have it too. All the codes you could ever need are in that file, you can open any door in Torchwood 3."

JJ smiled, "Thank you Dr. Weaver." She walked to him and tenderly kissed the old man's forehead, "We'll be fine. All of us, we can get everyone out and destroy these creatures. Don't worry." She smiled, "stay here and look after Mathilda for me; she's always a wreck if she thinks I've gotten into trouble."

Dr. Weaver smiled reluctantly and relaxed slightly, "Do be careful, Jackie-Jane."

She smirked, "You are the only person on the planet ever to call me that, you know." She turned and opened the basement door and slowly climbed down the stairs to the basement; she was still weak and exhausted. The Doctor walked just behind her, watching to make sure she didn't fall. Several moments later they reached the door of the TARDIS, and JJ reached for the handle.

"Wait a minute, quick question; this writing..." He knelt to inspect the strange inscription just under the door knocker...only to realize it was gone.

"Writing, Doctor...?" JJ asked, confused.

The Doctor stared blankly at the empty space beneath the door knocker, then stood up sharply, "Never mind, silly old man, seeing things; let's, uh, get us to Torchwood shall we?"

JJ nodded seriously and opened the door and walked in. The Doctor took one more look at the door as he went in; it couldn't just be gone, he knew he had seen it. He shook his head and followed her in. She jumped up the stairs towards the console, nearly losing her balance at the top; the Doctor caught her. She pushed him away, partly amused partly spiteful, and started flipping switches and turning knobs. "You know where to take us, Simon."

Within a few moments, a strangely ornate and medieval looking door was fixed on the side of the coffee-shop across from Torchwood. JJ and the Doctor jumped out of the TARDIS; JJ stumbled and had to hold onto a garbage can for balance.

"Are you sure you're alright to be walking?" The Doctor asked concernedly.

"I'm fine," she lied, as she held the TARDIS door a moment, poorly masking her severe vertigo. "This is important," she looked up to the Doctor, desperately wanting him to agree with her. He nodded, reluctantly, and offered his arm as they walked across the street.

The building was 35 stories tall, and the exterior was a dark reflective (and most alien weaponproof) glass. It sat on a concrete platform at They both looked the building up and down, trying to find a way in; security lockdown had already been enacted, and the entire exterior of the building pulsed with electricity.

JJ began reading through the electronic file again, looking for the codes to open the doors as she walked to the east side of the building where the security access podium was located. The Doctor took a few steps backwards and looked up and down the tall building, trying to figure out the situation, when he heard it.

There was a soft thump at the glass door; the Doctor stared ahead wide-eyed in terror. JJ slowly turned and faced the doors, and drew in a sharp breath.

They didn't move. They just sat there; staring, if thats what you could call it; cold and empty. Their fresh bronze and silver bodies glistened in the noon-time sun that shone through the glass doors lining the bottom of the building. Two dozen of them had their plungeresque appendages firmly fixed on the glass, but did nothing more; they simply waited. Behind that set were enough to fill the entire downstairs lobby and disappear through the doors and up the stairs to the next floor.

"Doctor..." JJ said quietly, "are those..."

He violently grabbed her hand and pulled her backwards down the stairs, not turning away or blinking even for a second.

JJ and the Doctor stood at the bottom of the short flight of stairs, he staring up at the beasts while she eyed up the building. "We need to get them out..." she whispered. JJ's cell phone rang in her pocket; she pulled it out quickly and answered it, hands shaking.

"Dad?"

"JJ, where are you?"

"Dad! We're outside Torchwood, we're trying to get to you; there's Daleks, all over down stairs we can't find a way in without letting them out. Is there any way you can drop the shields long enough for us to get the TARDIS..."

"JJ," he interrupted urgently, "listen to me! They're hacking the security system," he shouted into the phone, "in less than 10 minutes they're going to be outside with every piece of information Torchwood had ever acquired. We can't let that happen."

"I know dad, what do you want me to do?" She began pacing at the foot of the stairs, watching the Daleks.

"I don't know!" he shouted. There was silence on both ends of the line. "That have to be destroyed, JJ."

JJ was getting frustrated, "I know! But I can't do anything about that from out here, if I try to walk in I'll be zapped. There's a security access panel I could use to lower the shields but I don't know how we'll handle the Daleks."

"Do NOT do that! Oh, think think think, how do you destroy an army of Daleks with...nothing!" He held the phone away from his ear and looked around the room at the rest of his crew, "JJ, pull up the security system, try and run some code to cut them off, scramble anything you can. Is the Doctor with you?"

"Yeah, he's just here," she answered.

"Alright, brilliant, I'll call you back in a few minutes, hopefully with a plan. Run that code!" He forcefully hung up the phone.

"He's trying to figure something out," she explained as she weakly marched back up to the stairs to the podium; the Doctor looked terrified as he tried to stop her. She brushed him off, "he wants me to run code and try and intercept their escape."

"Alright," he agreed hesitantly, eyeing the metal beasts, "just...be careful. These things can kill us."

"Noted," JJ muttered bitterly.

Something in her tone was dark and sat wrong, but he didn't question her now, as she worked on building walls of code trying to block the monsters.

The Doctor began wandering around the exterior of the building; several moments later JJ's phone rang again. "Doctor! Answer that please, back pocket," she called.

He pulled the phone out of her back trouser pocket, awkwardly handling it with the tips of his fingers so as though not to accidentally touch her bottom; she smirked tiredly at his effort as he flipped open the phone.

"Hello, this is the Doctor speaking; Professor, what's your plan?"

"Doctor, listen to me," John said quietly, "do not answer any questions with anything besides 'yes' or 'no,' understood?"

The Doctor's face grew dark; he had a feeling he already knew where this conversation was going, and he didn't like it. "Yes," he replied.

"We have to blow the building. You and I both know there's no other way, and we don't have enough time for anything complicated. Agreed?"

The Doctor was silent for a moment; he looked at the Daleks, staring silently at him through the glass. He looked the building slowly up and down; it's shield was impenetrable, there was no way in or out. He slowly turned and looked at JJ, who despite working quickly was barely buying any extra time.

"Yes..." he said, his throat catching slightly.

"What's going to have to happen," John said softly, "something called protocol 27 is going to have to be enacted. It is a last resort, for if the building is compromised and there is no way to save anything. It can only be activated by someone that has access to an eternal security panel, and has top clearance. It will require a numerical code, which I have, and a handprint, which she can provide, and then you'll have 10 seconds before the building implodes."

The Doctor watched JJ fervishly typing code into the security panel, and his stomach dropped as he realized what John was saying. "No..." he whispered, "no I can't ask that."

"Doctor,"

"No! I won't! I can't ask her to-"

"-To destroy everything and everyone she knows and loves? Her family, her friends, her home? To be fair, Doctor..." he took in a deep shaky breath, "you're one of two people in this universe with any right to ask her. And please, for the love of God," his voice caught, "please do NOT make me do it."

He was begging.

The Doctor shed a tear as he gave the building another once over, "There's something else you should know, Doctor. About Rose. Torchwood...they...they knew what was making her sick...all along. They...they put it there..."

The Doctor's face grew dark as another hot tear fell, and he turned his back to JJ, "No..." He whispered, "No, tell me they didn't..."

There was silence on the other end of the line, then "There's nothing to save in here, Doctor. Daleks will be here to exterminate us any moment. This is the only way."

He was crying.

"Please, Doctor go. This needs done quickly, before the Daleks get out or people in her panic. Convince her."

The Doctor stared silently at her as she worked on the small access panel. "Okay," he whispered, "stay on the line for just a snap."

The Doctor stood for a second, staring between JJ and the Daleks, then took a deep breath and approached her cheerfully,

"JJ listen, I'm going to give you a code that's going to drop the shield, then it's going to require a handprint. Our only option is to let them out, we'll have to run for the TARDIS as soon as its activated, understand?"

JJ was silent for a moment; she stopped typing and turned to stare at the building, her face stoney and dark -did she know he was lying?- before a surge of energy overtook her and she bounced her focus back to the small keyboard, gripping it for support. She typed in several commands quickly one-handed, "Okay, I'm in the security system now, what's the code?"

"Professor, what's the code?" the Doctor asked; a moment later, "2-3-1-1-6-3," he recited; JJ shakily managed to enter the first half of the numbers before she finally collapsed, grasping the side of the podium in a weak attempt to stop her fall that failed. She fell into a pile at the base of the podium.

"I...I can't stand anymore," she panted; her head lolled to the side, she was starting to lose consciousness again. The Doctor crouched down to her level and stared her in the eyes, "what can I do?"

She looked up, her bronze eyes echoing dark pools of sadness. He nodded, and stood back at the podium. "Professor, the last bit of the code, the last two numbers, what are they?"

"6-3," John answered, his silent tears were evident in his voice as the Doctor entered the code. A loading bar appeared, showing 60 seconds until the self destruct program uploaded.

"Doctor," JJ whispered, "may I please have my phone?"

"Uh...I'm not sure it's a good idea..."

She cast a dark look up at him, speckled with spite and nearly hinting at hate; she knew. "I think, Doctor," she wheezed, "I deserve at least this." She took in a painful ragged breath.

50 seconds

"Give me the phone." She tried to extend her arm, but she lacked the strength.

The Doctor crouched before her and held the phone to her ear, and raised her hand for her to hold it. She cleared her throat and spoke in a hoarse whisper, "Dad?"

"Jack?" He moaned. He took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself.

"Dad, it's okay," she said quietly. "I know." Silent tears began to fall from her face as she tried to avoid eye contact with the Doctor, who stood and began pacing near the building.

He let out one sob, "I am so sorry, Jackie, I never...I would never ask..."

"I know," she smiled as more tears fell; the Doctor stepped back to the podium and watched the count down on the podium; he tried to hide his own tears from JJ.

30 seconds

"Here, you're on loudspeaker, mum's here."

"Hello, Jackie," Rose whispered, trying to not sound as sick as she did.

"Hi mum..." JJ whispered hoarsely; then she burst into tears. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry we weren't sooner, we couldn't get you-"

"Don't apologize," John said quietly, "JJ this is not your fault. Never ever think this is your fault, promise me that?"

20 seconds

"I promise," she said between sobs. "I'm so sorry I was here the past few years. I wish..."

"JJ," Rose interrupted, "you can't change the past; and don't ever try to. Everything happens for a reason, and...it's alright. I should have understood."

JJ sobbed harder.

"Listen," John said, "try and stay with the Doctor, he can help you. And remember everything I told you."

"Okay," she wheezed. "Dad, I'm scared."

"Me too."

10 seconds

The Doctor leaned down and began trying to help her stand up so she could use her handprint. She was bawling in his arms, and too weak to stand on her own.

"I love you."

"I love you too, sweetheart," Rose replied through tears.

"And I love you to, Jack," John said softly.

The initial countdown was over. The security handprint glowed on the pad with a 45 second countdown until the building would automatically shut down the security field. JJ blinked at it for a moment, and tried to raise her hand to the print as the Doctor supported her with one arm. After two attempts she slumped back into him, bawling hysterically with her phone at her side, "I...I can't do it..." She whispered.

"C'mon, JJ, I know you can," he glanced up; ahead of him he saw the dark woman from his dream. She looked at him, her face heavy and unsmiling. Slowly, she raised her hand.

"I can't do it," JJ repeated as she raised her head; the woman disappeared. The countdown read 20 seconds now.

"Promise me; promise you will hold her hand," the woman had said. The Doctor looked down at JJ's hand. He gently reached down and grabbed her wrist, and set her palm on top of the security panel, then he pressed his hand over hers until it was flat against the glass. It began processing her print and was finished in seconds.

10 seconds until self destruct.

The Doctor bent down and scooped up JJ's tiny body as she collapsed in his arms, and began running as fast as he could for the TARDIS, which had moved to the top of the staircase. JJ managed to pull the hand holding the phone up to her ear and rest it on the Doctor's chest.

"Mum, dad..." She whispered quickly, "remember the trip we made for my 16th birthday? When we went to the fire moon of Ortrea..."

"And we camped under that tree," John came in "that we tried to use as a campfire but it wouldn't cook the marshmellows because the density was incompatible with the atmosphere?"

"They evaporated," Rose concluded, "And as we watched the suns set, the atmospheric pressure extinguished all the fires, and the sky went from orange to blue with purple clouds."

"And we counted the stars," JJ whispered.

"Until you fell asleep in our arms," Rose smiled sadly.

The Doctor reached the door of the TARDIS, which Simon opened automatically. "Simon; bedroom, please!" He called. He could feel JJ burning up again in his arms, she wouldn't be awake much longer, especially if he was correct about what would happen next. Simon moved her bedroom to the first door up the stairs, and the Doctor walked in and layed her on the bed.

"We're so proud of you," John whispered, his voice strained. The Doctor took her phone and put it on speaker on her pillow. "Be brave, be strong, and live a good life. See everything."

"And don't be alone. Please never ever let yourself be alone," Rose begged.

The Doctor stared at the phone; JJ whispered, "I love you mum...I love you dad..." she repeated. She was barely conscious now.

"We love you too, sweethea-" suddenly Rose was cut off as the phone went static; JJ clutched the back of her head and let out an agonizing scream. "No!" She weakly clawed several times at her head as the Doctor tried to restrain her, then she passed out, tears streaming down her face. He let go of her wrists, and shifted her so she was in a comfortable position, tucking her tiny body under the blankets.

He checked her temperature and stepped back; her face was contorted in pain, and despite being unconscious, she was still crying fresh tears.

The Doctor backed out of the room and walked back to the door of the TARDIS, which was still open facing the scene.

All that remained was the flat cement platform the building had stood on, and the burnt up security panel. The Doctor leaned just inside the door and stared emptily for several minutes, until Simon gently shut the door in his face. The click of the closing door finally triggered his cascade of tears, and he collapsed onto the floor, sobbing hysterically. He could hear Simon taking off; he had no idea where. He didn't care.

Suddenly he sensed another presence. He turned around, and saw the dark woman again, standing next to the TARDIS console, silent and still unsmiling.

"You..." he muttered. He quickly stood up and stared at the woman, his eyes ablaze, "who the bloody hell are you?" He shouted. "And how the hell did you know that would happen?"

She stood there stoically, dark and cold, not saying a word.

"ANSWER ME!" He screamed violently, "WHO...ARE...YOU?"


	10. Chapter 10

The Doctor stood, fists clenched and eyes glowering at the strange woman standing by the TARDIS console.

Suddenly someone spoke next to him. "Doctor, you must be calm," the soothing male voice whispered. He turned beside him; Simon was standing at his side.

"Calm? What the hell happened there? Who is she, how did know that would happen," he turned back to the woman "why didn't you stop it!?"

"Doctor, you MUST be calm," Simon repeated forcefully, his blue eyes glinting. He materialized directly in front of the Doctor and stared into his eyes, "You must be calm and listen to me. In 2 minutes, I'm going to have to do something I really don't want to do, and you're not going to like it. But you have to trust me. This is what must be."

"What do you mean?" The Doctor asked cautiously.

"I took something from JJ...except I took too much, she's deteriorating. I have to fix it; I have to fix her." Simon explained. "And..." he hesitated a moment, "now is when you realize what I'm suggesting."

The Doctor's face dropped as Simon spoke, "What, are you going to trigger another regeneration?" Simon just looked at him, "You can't do that she'll die!"

"The change must take place. You cannot stop it," he sighed sadly, "I'm sorry." With that Simon vanished.

The Doctor looked looked back up to the woman, who stared with an intent, dark expression. Finally she spoke,

"She's going to want you with her," she said. Her voice was deep, and her London accent thick and severe. She glared at him, her dark eyes brown eyes burning with loathing.

"How do you know that," he asked, "one last time, and you had best answer me," he growled, "who are you?"

"Think, Doctor. You're the clever one, aren't you?" She spat, "spinning off in your blue box, always leaving, leaving all of us because it hurts too much to be around us. You think of excuses but really all you are is scared. And one day, that's going to tear her apart." The TARDIS shook, and she glared harder at him, "This is your fault."

He heard JJ yelling from her room; he cast one more dark look in her direction before running to the sound.

He burst in to find Simon perched like a lemur on the back of a chair next to JJ's bed, his hands folded across his knees; he almost looked like he was floating. He didn't acknowledge the Doctor when he came in.

JJ was weakly thrashing on the bed and mumbling, apparently in the midst of a nightmare. Her clothes were soaked; she was sweating profusely and she was pale.

The Doctor tried to step to her bedside and check her temperature, but suddenly he was yanked to the ground; Simon had increased the gravity in the corner of her room, and he was pinned to the floor under a small pile of miscellaneous papers that had been taped and hanging from the ceiling.

"Simon," he groaned, "you can't do this, she'll die, it's too soon!"

He said nothing; he only watched as JJ tossed and turn restlessly. He climbed silently from the chair to her bedside, not taking his eyes from her. He gently placed his hand on hers; and it floated through it.

"You're just an image..." The Doctor whispered, "you're just an impression there's nothing you can do to her," he gasped desperately; the gravity increase was stressing his lungs and it was getting hard to breathe.

Simon watched JJ sadly, "this version of me is an impression..." he whispered; the walls of the room began to glow a soft gold, and waves of energy floated in growing wisps that filled the air, "but that doesn't mean my tangible form is incapable of action."

"Simon, what are you doing?" he asked.

Simon attempted to stroke her face as the room grew brighter with swirling gold, and seemed to want to cry but he couldn't. "She's dying because I took too much energy from her," he said, "I wiped her out too much to keep living, and I took too much to let her fix herself."

"So you're going to overload her system with energy and hope that works? Simon, just stop. Stop it, we can figure out another way to save her! She's still in the regeneration cycle if you kill her again, she stays dead! Forever!"

Simon shook his head, and stood back up. The room was nearly blindingly bright now, "there is no other way, Doctor," he whispered. The energy began to condense into a single beam hovering in the air above JJ's bed. He cast a morose look in the Doctors direction, "believe me, I do not want to do this. But I must."

"No Simon you don't, just..."

"I'm sorry..." He looked back to JJ, and the energy beam became two-pronged and aimed for JJ's chest.

"Simon!" He gasped and struggled to stand but the gravity was too strong.

The beam drew backwards, like a cobra prepared to strike.

"Simon! Stop! No!"

The energy surge pounded into JJ's hearts; her chest jumped nearly a foot off the bed and her eyes flung open, her mouth moved to scream but no sound came out.

"SIMON, LET HER GO!" The Doctor screamed; energy continued to pour into her chest. Simon looked to the Doctor as he faded away.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

A few seconds after he had gone, the beam of light disappeared; JJ collapsed, unmoving onto the bed as all power in the TARDIS shut down. The gravity released and the Doctor jumped up from the floor and ran to her side, gasping for air.

"JJ," he panted, "JJ wake up!" He checked her pulse; nothing. She didn't move, or breathe; he threw his ear to her chest, and there was not a single heartbeat. He felt his face grow hot, and a tear fell from his already puffy eyes. He stood up and stared at JJ's lifeless body, hoping...praying she would move.

Nothing.

He stood for a moment, trying to search for any sign that she could be alive; but there was none. The pleasant buzz in the back of his head was gone, and he again felt alone.

He backed away from the bed, and leaned heavily against the wall near her bedroom door. Tears cascaded down his face as he slowly slid to the floor, unable to remove his eyes from her.

"Please..." he whispered... "Please, let me be wrong. Let me be wrong just this once," he looked to the ceiling, as if addressing the universe, "GIVE ME ONE! Just ONE!" he shouted. He jumped up and spun around the door and shouted at the dark empty TARDIS, "I GIVE and I GIVE and all I ever do is lose; you always WIN and I ALWAYS fight for you! IT'S! NOT! FAIR!" he screamed. "I'm so...so tired of..." His voice trailed off as he leaned against the rail at the top of the stairs..."I am so tired..." he whispered. He thought of everyone he had ever lost...mental pictures of thousands of years of his friends flashed before his eyes, all of them dead or gone. He thought of Rose, who he'd lost now twice, this time forever; Martha and Donna, and the Ponds, dear Susan, Adric, Teegan, Jenny, knowing that even River and Jack would someday meet their ends. "I am so tired..." he whispered brokenly, "of being alone..." tears streamed down his face, and he leaned heavily against the rail, as if all 1,200 years were sitting on his shoulders, and he was ready to finally collapse.

He stared blankly at the dark TARDIS console, feeling lost. His own TARDIS was missing; this one was seemingly dead floating in the time vortex. He just watched anyone he cared for in this universe go up in smoke and had no way back to his own.

He dropped his head dejectedly and stared at the faint golden light growing at his feet. "I don't know what to do..." he muttered. He put his fingers to his forehead and rubbed his temples.

"Doctor?" A little voice squeaked.

His eyes popped open and grew wide as saucers. He spun around, and JJ was leaning in the doorway, drenched with sweat and looking confused.

His face broke into a smile so bright it nearly split his face, and grabbed her up kissing her on the forehead. "You're okay!" He exclaimed, clutching her close. She hung limply in his arms.

"Doctor," she whispered hoarsely, "what's happening? I feel...wrong..."

He pulled her away and looked her up and down; it wasn't until now he noticed her hands glowing with regeneration energy. She turned them over, inspecting them, her eyes growing wide with fear. "Doctor...what's happening?" she asked again.

His arms dropped to his side and he took a cautious step back from her. "Well...you're regenerating."

She looked up at him, terror written on her face, "will it hurt?"

He sighed and smiled reassuringly, "A little bit..." Her face was beginning to glow now as the energy swirled around her.

"I'm...I'm scared Doctor...dad said I'll change, I'm going to be different...like, me. I won't be the same." She was glowing brighter now; he just watched.

"There's...really no good way to explain it, until it happens. But yes, you'll be different. You'll look different, talk different, think different...you'll have all your memories, you'll just be, well...regenerated." He smiled coyly.

She grinned faintly and nodded as she looked at her hands again, "Ya know, fish fingers man..." She looked back up as her face grew almost blindingly bright, "maybe it's time things were a little different."

Suddenly her whole body was ripped and pulsing with regeneration energy; the Doctor was forced a step backwards as the change took place. The TARDIS seemed to feed off of her, and instantly all of the lights came back on and the engine began purring.

Her body stretched several inches, and her torso condensed from fit to tiny and delicate. Her eyes changed from caramel brown to a light sky blue. Her skin lightened to a freckled pale, and her softly curled brown hair straightened and turned...

He gaped as she fell into a gasping pile on the floor. She took in several deep breaths and inspected herself.

"10 fingers, a nose, 2 eyes," she ran her fingers through her hair and grabbed at her chest, "still a girl, that's good." She inspected her now tight and slightly too short clothes.

"How come YOU get to be ginger?"

Her head snapped up; her pale, tiny narrow face went from confusion to an animated expression of shock. "I'm WHAT!?"

He stared speechlessly and pointed. She jumped up and ran into her room, inspecting herself in the mirror. "I'm what?" she muttered. She pulled at her straight orange hair as if her head was covered with something delicate she dare not touch, and her face fell into a grimace. "This will not do." She turned and ran to the other side of the room where her dresser was and pulled open the top drawers, tearing through them as the Doctor walked into the room, still gaping jealously.

"That," he pointed, half wanting to laugh, "that is not fair."

"Yeah, well," she huffed as she found what she was looking for, "you can have it."

She tore back across the room to the mirror, scissors in hand.

"What?" He watched, confused.

"Ginger is horrible, the regeneration gods must really just hate me," she grabbed a fistful of hair, held it high, then chopped it off close to her head.

"No! No!" He shouted; she turned around surprised, the long fiery hair hanging shimmering in her hand.

"Oi...never mind, off you go..." He moaned as he flung his hand helplessly in her direction. He turned from the room back to the TARDIS console to allow her time to change.

He walked around the console, listening to her bounce and bang around the room. "Ungrateful child," he grumbled. He stroked bits of the console distantly. "Thank you," he whispered, to no one in particular; somewhat to Simon, who despite his inability to communicate and his aggravating 'I know I'm all-knowing' attitude, did seem to be watching out for JJ; and somewhat to the universe. The universe that created a Time Lord where none existed before...perhaps this was its way of thanking him...

He shook his head, "I'm a silly old man," he muttered. The universe doesn't thank its protectors. He knew how it worked. Time and space was unforgiving, indiscriminate of who or what it allowed to live or die or be ripped apart. It gave no thanks, no presents or recompense. It simply existed, that was all.

"Whatcha think?" He heard her new voice from the top of the stairs. He turned around, and grinned, ever so slightly sadly. She had hacked her bright hair down to a pixie cut, and hid the rest under a black fedora. She was wearing a lavender jacket overtop of a pink tank top and light jeans, and a pair of black high-tops.

Just then, she screeched; her hands flew up to her head and grabbed her hair; the orange wired through her fingers and grew back to the length it had been before. She stood with the hair tangled in her fingers, a look of disgust and shock plastered on her face. The Doctor laughed through his hand, "You're still in the first 18 hours of your regeneration cycle; it's just going to keep fixing itself."

Her fists flew down to her sides and she stomped her feet, then marched down the steps to the console. She yanked off the fedora and tossed it across the room. "I guess we'll just save this for later then." She started fiddling with dials and flipping switches, and the TARDIS swarmed with life.

"Alright, Doctor, where too?"

"This is weird," he said as he watched her, "Usually, I'm the one driving."

"Are you impressed?" She grinned, "Dad taught me how to fly. That was...interesting," she scrunched up her face, "really quite scary actually, worse than learning a car, he kept going on about how the buttons were wrong and Simon hated him, wouldn't do anything he asked, dad couldn't figure why. But of course now we know, don't we?" She smile as she flipped the final switch. "So I think we're going to be going to the planet Lythiim. Techy planet, the people there have a shared memory system, billions of years of knowledge and they can just pull it up in their brains, like google in their heads! Imagine if you and I could do that, oh boy that would be just splendid, wouldn't it?" She turned and intently studied the screen readouts.

The Doctor watched her as she bounced around the console. She was excitable, and rambling...the rambling likely mostly after affects of the regeneration, but he sensed it would be one that would stick around; and it suited her.

But there was something else. Masking. She was good at it, better than her previous regeneration. Her feelings had been loud before, like a baby screaming for food or attention. Now...she felt like a sneaky toddler, hiding something under her adorable veneer.

And it didn't take much to guess what would be affecting her.

"JJ, are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" She asked.

"JJ, do you remember what just happened?"

"Yeah, I blew up Torchwood," she said, her voice suddenly brittle. She turned away and wouldn't make eye contact.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." She faced him again, her face bright. "Things happen, right? And sometimes we can't save everyone. But we did, though. Blowing Torchwood saved the universe; no Daleks. So, yeah," she flipped another switch, "I'm fine. Now we've got some time before we can fly properly, Simon needs to fix himself up a bit. I'm going to take a nap." She turned and jumped up the stairs, her soft red curls bouncing behind her. "Oh," she stopped at the top of the stairs and turned around, "and...I don't think I ought to be called JJ anymore. It feels...wrong."

"Well...uh, then what would you like to be called?"

Her face squinched up as she thought about it, "Jacqueline-Jane Smith..." She whispered, then shook her head decisively. "Jane. I'll just be called Jane, that sounds right."

The Doctor smiled, "Okay...Jane...have a good rest."

She grinned again. "Your room is up those stairs to the right, 3rd door down the hall way."

His face lit up with excitement, "I get a room?" He turned and ran up the stairs and disappeared down the hallway.

Jane walked into her room and shut the door; and locked it. She took a moment to herself, breathing, taking in the silence. She walked over to her desk and opened up the holographic interface she used in place of a computer. Connected to Simon and to most internets of the galaxy, it had access to most information in the universe; she sat there a moment, not quite sure how she would search what she wanted to look for.

"Hmm..." she whispered, "Alright, we'll start with you then."

'Torchwood; 10 August, 2059.'

Articles came up with conspiracy theories, myths, legends; the top article was written just a few hours ago about the disappearance of the building. She clicked on it;

Sam Jones, Cardiff Query  
10 August, 2059

"There were several reports that the mysterious building referred to as 'Torchwood' vanished today. Some witnesses claim it was an some nutter saw it explode and thought it the work of aliens."

Well, technically...

She clicked back to the search page, and stared at it blankly. She couldn't think, all of her thoughts were jumbled. She rested her head in her hands and closed her eyes.


	11. Wolves of Caelvaro

Why were they staring? They all looked terrified, as if a monster was standing just behind her. She rotated her head; behind her were only more strange people staring at her in fear.

She rotated back and faced her parents; she wanted to ask them what was wrong, but the words wouldn't come; it was as if her mouth was sewn shut. She moved toward them, and they tensed; had the monster moved with her?

She tried to speak again, "what? What's wrong?" She thought.

"EXTERMINATE!"

Everyone in the room screamed and backed away from her. She looked around wildly; was there a Dalek here? She noticed the reflection in the glass prison cell wall; there it was, big and cold, silver and green and shining; and staring right at her. She screamed, and it screamed too. She rotated her head to the side to try and see it, and it's reflection copied her. Exactly. She looked back to the reflection, why didn't she see herself? She moved her head again; it did the same. She moved forward, and it took her steps as people screamed in fear. Then it hit her; she was the monster.

She rotated her head back to her parents, who were backed against the wall. She tried to say, "it's me! It's Jackie! I'm going to get you out!"

"EXTERMINATE! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!"

Two shots fired involuntarily from the blasting appendage; one striking her mother and one striking her father; they both collapsed, lifeless, on the floor.

"NO!" Her head rang.

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"

Her body was going wild, spinning and firing, killing everyone in the room, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

And they screamed. They all screamed. Even when they were dead. They still. Kept. Screaming.

"EX-TERRR-MINNNN-AAAAAATE!"

Someone began shaking her, who was it? Were they trying to kill her?

"JJ!"

She jumped up, screaming, fists flying, connecting solidly with the jaw of her attacker. She stood there panting, and then it clicked that she had punched. With her fists, no appendages; she wasn't a Dalek. She looked around her; she was in her bedroom in the TARDIS, standing at her desk in an unfamiliar martial-arts defensive stance. Sprawled on the floor was the Doctor, clutching his jaw in surprise.

"Oh my God," she said as she relaxed. She knelt at his side, "I am so, so sorry are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine..." he groaned as he felt his jaw, "tough right hook you've got, oi. Didn't expect it, you're so..." He gestured at her with his free hand, "...tiny." His jaw was beginning to bruise slightly.

"I'm sorry..." was all she could say. She helped him sit up and inspected his jaw, "well at least I didn't break anything." She smiled nervously.

"I told you, I'm fine," he brushed her off, "Now, are you alright? You were...kind of...mumbling something about Daleks..." he looked at her concernedly, his green eyes glistening. She looked into his face, and for just a moment, she hated him.

How dare he look like him? Not on the outside, but...

She had always seemed to see people differently; she could identify anyone's baby photo, even if she only just met them as an old person. People just always had something about them, almost an aura, but not quite; that she tended to identify people by rather than physical appearances. As a child she would go home from school and describe her friends based on...a feeling, like her best friend was "the boy who echoes" for two years before she started using his name, and it wasn't until she was nearly 12 before she could describe him by his physical appearance, and even that was forced. It was unnatural for her, and something she never learned to do instinctively.

And now, when she looked at this man, she saw her father.

She turned away from him sharply and reached in the bottom drawer of her desk for a first aid kit. She pulled out an ice pack activated by cracking it, and handed it to the Doctor.

"I told you to call me Jane," she said shortly. She knew that he wasn't trying to hurt her, but she couldn't bear to look at him. "What did you wake me up for?"

He stood up, holding the ice pack to his jaw, "It's the TARDIS,"

"He's called Simon," she huffed.

"Yes..." he said slowly, "it's Simon...he's...lost, I think."

"Lost?" She asked, disbelieving. She turned to her dresser and distantly rearranged the photo frames and random trinkets.

"It was making strange..."

"HE." She was getting really agitated now.

"He...was making strange noises; alarms, so I checked, and he can't seem to get a lock on any location or time period."

"What?" She turned to him, her face slightly flushed, "We're supposed to be on for 23rd Century Liithum, that shouldn't be a problem." She stormed out of the room and down the steps to the control room and inspected the screen for herself. He tried to follow her, "Jane, are you alright? You seem upset. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No," she growled. She began fiddling with dials. Just then, the Doctor went to climb down the stairs; as his foot lowered onto the first step, the staircase disappeared. He tumbled down and face planted on the metal floor.

"Ow!" He shouted, shocked.

Jane tried not to giggle as she inspected him from the console. "You alright?"

"Yeah...yeah I'm fine..." He groaned as he pulled himself up. He grabbed the ice pack from the ground, straightened his bow tie and jacket and walked next to Jane.

"I really pissed off one of you didn't I?" He asked, gently icing the growing bruise on his face.

"You know TARDISes are sentient. Simon was offended," she huffed. She deliberately avoided facing him and continued trying to straighten Simon's course.

"Well...I'm sorry Simon."

Suddenly the TARDIS shook violently, tossing Jane and the Doctor around like rag dolls.

"Oi!" She shouted; the TARDIS remained on an incline, and she had to climb up the grated floor to reach the console again. She pulled herself up until she was sitting on one of the bolted-down chairs and inspected the screen. "Simon what's wrong with you?" She asked; she stared blankly at the screen, trying to think what she could do.

"If he's unstable," the Doctor suggested as he clung to one of the bars on the lower stairwell, "perhaps it's the thermal regulator? If he's overheated it could be-"

"I didn't ask you for advice, Doctor!" She snapped; nevertheless, she did adjust the thermal regulator, which did seem to slowly start balancing the other wildly whizzing dials on the dash.

"Oi," he yelled, "I'm just trying to help! I have been flying TARDISes a thousand years longer than you've been alive, I do know a thing or two about them."

"And you still called him an "it!"" She shouted back as she climbed up and around the console, "some experience you've got, I feel bad for your TARDIS." She began programming the landing sequence.

"My TARDIS is fine!" Simon was straightened out by now, and the Doctor began walking back towards the console.

"I'll bet she was," Jane quipped, "considering she kicked you out into an alternate universe and left you!" She jumped from the console and ignored the Doctor as she kept working at the controls.

He stood there in shock, his mouth agape, "What did you just say to me?"

"You heard me properly. If I was a TARDIS I'd abandon you on some crummy beach, too! What with the way you treat people, it's like you don't even care! All you do is abandon people, isn't it?" she asked accusingly, "And now it's happened to you, and you don't know how to handle it do you?"

"Oi, I do NOT need lectured by a child! I know you think you're the clever one running round here, you're the only time lord in your universe and that must make you special, but miss you are NOT the only one anymore and I am over one-THOUSAND years your senior, I will not have attitude from you, do you understand?"

Now Jane stood shocked, and save the engines, the TARDIS was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. She stood, her fists clenched and nostrils flaring. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and hot, "Who exactly do you think you are?" she asked.

"Jane, I am just trying to look out for you..."

"DON'T!" She shouted, her voice echoing through the console room. The engines slowly died down, until they were silent. The Doctor and Jane stood, frozen glaring at each other. She huffed out a breath and turned her back to him, checking the screen.

"We've landed," she muttered. She turned and headed for the door.

"Where?" He asked as he followed her, being sure to leave a slight distance between them.

"No idea," she growled quietly, hoping he wouldn't hear, as she opened the door.

It was dark, and muggy. Stars caught in a black sky poked through ancient moss-covered tree branches. Jane and the Doctor looked around the musky world in wonder; it was quiet, only the sounds of distant night-time fauna echoed through the foreign forest. Jane made to take a step from the TARDIS, staring up at the distant treetops, when the Doctor suddenly grabbed her shoulders and pulled her backwards. "Oi!" She shouted, surprised, and looked down; Simon was wedged into some tree branches, and they were nearly 70 feet off the ground. "Uh...thank you..." said shakily. The Doctor closed the door as she turned and ran back to the console and moved them to the forest floor.

Jane stared at the screen again as she programmed for them to move, "Im not entirely sure, but I believe we're on Caelvaro," she said; she turned to him and held out her palm. "Key," she said simply.

"Key," he asked, "what key?"

"Your TARDIS key."

"Absolutely not!" He exclaimed.

"If I give it to Simon, he can trace it and find your TARDIS. It's your best shot at finding her, unless you have a better plan."

He stared at her hand, then grumpily pulled his key from his pocket and thrust it in her hand.

"Thank you," she smiled sweetly; she turned and opened up a slot on the console and tucked the key inside. "Trust me, if there's something we both want, it's you home. Now stay here, I'll be right bank." She turned and ran up the steps disappearing into her room.

"Caelvaro," he called after her, "in my universe, that's a sort of prehistoric Earth, is that true here?" He asked.

"Yep, basically. Obviously we've landed in deciduous forest territory, but there's deserts, volcanos, rainforest, plains; same basic idea as Earth, just largely uninhabited by humanoid life forms; it's too far from most civilization." She came out of her room wearing a purple tank top, black cargo pants and rubber boots up to her calves; she was tucking her fathers bronze sonic screwdriver into her side pocket and carrying her purple corduroy jacket. "There's lots of big creatures here," she explained walking backwards toward the door, "like big tigers and bears, and elk-like things, and...random...other...large and familiarish animals." She quickly turned back to the door and began fumbling with it.

The Doctor stared at her as he walked towards the door, "You don't know much about this place, do you?"

"Well," she explained, "far from colonized planets, not much of a reason for those planets that have space travel to come here, NOBODY knows much about this place." She opened the door; the ornate medieval door was set on the forest floor now, propped against the base of a massive tree. She cautiously stepped out of Simon, and the Doctor followed. They gazed around the giant forest; roots poked out of the ground nearly as talk as they were, and the tree trunks ran several hundred feet into the air. You could scarcely see the sky now, or anything detailed for that matter on account of the near total darkness, and everything smelled of wet rotting foliage.

Jane reached into one of her side pockets and pulled out two flashlights. She passed one to the Doctor and clicked hers on, inspecting ahead of them. "Doctor, I feel like we're not alone here, like, I feel like there's something that..." She couldn't find the words to finish her sentence.

"...Wants us to leave? Yeah, me too," The Doctor clicked on his flashlight and turned behind him, and froze. "Uh...Jane..." his voice squeaked.

"What?" She asked as she turned around. Her flashlight caught on two fluorescent eyes, parallel with her own, sitting on the end of a snarling snout that was just inches from her nose. Her face went white and she jumped a step back, her free hand flying to her mouth trying not to scream.

Before her stood a great grey wolf, massive in size; at about 5'4, the beast was nearly as tall as she was, its laid back ears just shorter than the top of her head. Its fur was matted in places, and a tooth was missing from its bottom jaw. Jane took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm and in one position, and quickly glanced over the animal's shoulder to the Doctor; two slightly shorter wolves were standing by him, also snarling defensively, and she heard at least two more voices behind her.

"Umm...Doctor..." She whispered squeakily, "what do we do?"

"Well...I think that's the alpha in front of you..."

"SILENCE" a voice rang in his head. He froze, and glanced back to Jane; judging by the shocked expression on her face, she had heard it too.

"LET THE ALPHA SPEAK" the voice echoed, and the alpha wolf glared at Jane expectantly. Jane's eyes grew wide as his muscles tensed defensively. She looked up at the Doctor, terrified and unsure of what to do.

"I think..." he said quietly, "he's talking to you..."

Jane's stomach dropped, and she looked as if she was about to faint; "Why?"

"You walked out of the TARDIS first; in pack animals thats typically how you identify Alpha, or the leader of the pack." The Doctor nodded towards the alpha wolf. "Greet him."

"Uhh..." She eyed the wolf warily; she could tell he was beginning to grow impatient. She wracked her brain for some way to greet him that would be considered appropriate...and did the only thing she could think.

She lowered her eyes, and slowly held out her hand towards the wolf's muzzle.

He stopped snarling and began sniffing her hand; she winced as he moved up her arm and begin sniffing her torso and down her legs. He got to her calves and snorted, then looked back up to her eyes; she kept them averted.

"WHO ARE YOU" the voice echoed.

Jane drew in a breath and answered, "We are lost travelers from another world; my ship crashed here. We mean no harm to you or your pack."

The wolf glared at her a moment longer, then turned and padded to the Doctor, sniffing him up and down. The Doctor stared wide-eyed at JJ over the wolf's back. After a moment, the alpha snorted, and turned to his companions.

"THEY WILL BE BROUGHT TO THE PACK"

The alpha began trotting into the forest. Jane and the Doctor exchanged terrified glances, "Please," she asked, "all we want is to-" the four other wolves growled viciously at Jane and the Doctor; they jumped and began following the alpha. The 4 pack wolves flanked them, keeping them at their center and moving them forward through the dark forest.

"What do you think is going to happen to us, Doctor?" Jane whispered.

"Well, this is probably a hunting party, judging by the way they move, and they're all male wolves. But I don't sense any desire to harm us; it seems they're a psychic race, which means they can communicate through thought and shared emotions, which is the voice we keep hearing in our heads."

"Yeah I figured that much out," Jane whispered back, "aren't most pack animals are like that? Relying on non-verbal communication? How comes we could actually...well, hear them talking?"

"Spending time in a TARDIS, it translates languages for you; basically, Simon gives us the ability to go from simply reading basic body language to actually understanding their speech."

"Okay," Jane whispered. They walked in silence for several minutes, watching around them, trying to take in their surroundings. The forest was beginning to thin out some, and they could see through the tops of the trees. The moon glowed faintly; it was about half the size of Earth's moon, so it only emitted a fraction of the light, making everything a grayish ominous haze.

They were led around the trunk of a tree nearly 30 feet wide, and came upon a massive rocky clearing. Boulders the size of small elephants lay scattered in piles around the clearing, and more giant wolves were emerging from the dark caves they created.

The females; there were 4 of them; seemed slightly smaller than the males, and most were accompanied by a single pup in various stages of development. All of the wolves had varying colors of fur, between black, grey and brown. There were also two adult male wolves who had been lounging atop the rocks, and were now in a defensive stance, snarling and gnashing their teeth. They jumped from their perches and with the rest of the pack formed two circles around them; females on the outside, males on the inside, and the alpha in the center with them, circling them slowly. While the males of the pack were maintaining a defensive stance, the alpha was relaxed and calm. He sniffed Jane again.

"HOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND OUR SPEECH"

"It's my ship," she explained, "he translates most languages."

"YOUR SHIP IS HOWAHKAN *_an image shone in the back of their heads, almost like a memory; darkness, and mist, and from the mist echoed a strange mysterious voice who spoke with endless knowledge but said no words_* KNOWS ALL, COMES FROM THE WIND, GROWS INTO ANCIENT TREES AND VANISHES."

Jane looked frazzled to the Doctor, "I..."

"Yes," the Doctor interrupted, trying to save her from explanation, "our ship, Howahkan you call him, he..."

"SILENCE, NIXKAMICH *_an image of an ancient grey wolf tugged at their brains; he was tired, panting, and looked ready to collapse. He was circled by romping pups, but was encompassed in a blanket of black hazy emptiness*_ HOWAHKAN SAYS LEADER OF YOUR PACK IS CHEASEQUAH *_an image of a tiny red bird flitted frantically around the edges of their consciousness, as if looking for a perch that had vanished_* CHEASEQUAH SPEAKS"

The Doctor's face hardened slightly, and his mouth shut. He was so used to being the leader, talking himself out of everything; this would be hard for him. Jane gulped, "I, uh...okay." She took in a deep breath and steeled her nerves; she realized the only person that could get them out of this was her. "Great wolf, we are Travellers from the stars. We see new places, learn new things *_fragments of Jane and the Doctors' memories flashed in the minds of the wolf pack; Susan, Aztecs, Gallifrey, blue people, Amy and Rory, trees on fire, purple oceans_* we help, we try and fix things, *_Torchwood torture, Melody Pond, Gallifrey burning, Emelia, Soufflé girl, Torchwood imploding_* ...we don't always win, though. He's The Doctor and I'm Jane; we're a species that doesn't exist, and we're traveling through time and space looking for his ship so he can get home. We mean no threat to you, we just want to get home."

The Alpha stared broodingly between Jane and the Doctor, and the pack eyed them warily. Finally, his voice echoed in their heads, "THERE IS MUCH TO LEARNFROM YOU. YOU WILL REMAIN WITH THE PACK FOR THREE MOONSETS, AND WE WILL EXPLORE THE STARS THROUGH YOUR EYES. ON THE THIRD MOONSET THE PACK WILL RETURN YOU TO HOWAHKAN AND YOU WILL RESUME YOUR JOURNEY." He turned behind him and seemed to address the pack, but Jane and the Doctor heard nothing. After a moment, the circles dispersed, and Alpha turned back to Jane and the Doctor; a comparatively small male wolf approached and stood by Alpha's side. "THIS IS NAMID *_the night sky appeared; the stars swirled and moved together, forming a wolf. The star-wolf sniffed near its feet, then romped in a few circles; distant, tinny music played, almost like the memory of a bird, and he seemed to dance to it. Then he sat, reared back his head, and howled longingly at the stars_* HE WILL SEE TO YOU, ENSURE YOU ARE FED AND SLEEP. IF THERE IS ANY OF OUR PLANET WE CAN SHARE, HE WILL GIVE." With that, the alpha walked away, disappearing into a cave with a female and a very young pup.

Jane observed the wolf Namid; he was young, and full of energy. He stood panting, his ears perked; the tips of his ears came about to Jane's shoulder, where the alpha's had been flush with the top of her head. He looked up between them with glistening gold eyes full of wonder.

"YOU WILL SHARE MY DEN" he said. He began walking towards a small opening beneath a pile of giant rocks and skulked inside; the Doctor and Jane hesitantly followed him, ducking down into the darkness.


End file.
